Secret No Longer
by StormDragon666
Summary: Hitsugaya had finally made the move to claim his love. Rukia was his; all in Soul Society was perfect. Then one average autumn night Rukia was kidnapped, or so she wants everyone to think, and Hitsugaya will not stand for it. HitsuRuki, two-shot, OOC.
1. She Who Was Gone

I am a newly-appointed private in the army. The HitsuRuki army. Look up Blackbelt's profile on this site and you'll see what I mean.

Yeah. Well. Bleach. Never done a fanfiction of this before. Great story, great characters, lots of detail and action and cleverness and mixes of everything an anime fan needs. Can't believe it took half a summer vacation of my brother's bickering to get me to watch it; this series is great. After we watched like 50 episodes together last summer (I was in the middle of the Rukia Rescue Arc before he decided we should watch some together, and we skipped the fillers) I'm finally into the Vizard/Arrancar thing. I actually haven't watched an episode in weeks—gotta change that—but it's mostly Blackbelt's fanfiction "Conversing the Dragon" that got me.

This pairing is like a drug. So damn addicting. At first I thought it was just "okay," but now for no reason in particular I went really hardcore into it and I spent a lot of time at school today daydreaming about the pairing. Now I'm so very into it I have to write a fanfiction about it, because _damn _it needs more fans!

I'm actually using a plot that I had planned for a SasuSaku one-shot which was based on a dream I had, but I'm probably gonna end up twisting the ending I had planned for that story and winging an ending for this one. I often end up winging a lot of things in life from school essays to fanfictions to making dinner and it almost always turns out well, so I think this'll be no different. Hopefully.

Beware the **OOC**-ness. Oh, god, the **OOC**-ness. At least there's comfort in the fact that there are fanfictions that feature him being even _more _**OOC**.

Oh, and since I haven't watched Bleach in awhile and it's going to take awhile for me to catch up, some of the **information**—captains, which people know and can do which things, who's dead and who's alive—**may be inaccurate**. I'm using the classic, easy Wikipedia since I want to write at least some of this down now and I like my research done quick for these things. So deal with it.

Oh, yeah, I haven't said this before but just to let you know: This Is A Two-Shot.

Well. Let's go.

666

November 30th, 7:53 PM (About sunset)

666

Of all places to be, of all in the world, this was one of the many thousand where no one would ever guess to look for her. The gigai she'd chosen this time was actually a useful one, one that could keep up with her speed and power. If a regular human looked at her right now, they would see nothing more than a short college-age brunette girl wearing a plaid sweater and slacks. Only she herself, or a human who was spiritually aware, like Ichigo or one of his friends, would see her true appearance hidden beneath. It had been hell to get a gigai that worked this way, and so much work had been done to it that she wondered if it could still be considered a gigai and not an outright costume.

Thankfully, though, no one spiritually aware was around. She'd sense it, surely, with all the work she'd put in to making herself scarce. She'd pulled all the strings herself—anonymously, of course—to make sure no one would be sure where she'd gone. No one would know whether she'd been kidnapped or killed or had run away or had just disappeared off the face of the earth completely. She hadn't, of course. She was still very much on Earth, sitting in a tree one cool autumn evening in Zürich.

Once again she curved her lips in a smile over the candy necklace she was eating, biting off three more little flavored rings from the string. One of the last places they'd ever look was here in Zürich.

Zürich.

Switzerland.

_Europe. _

None of her comrades, or enemies for that matter, would think she would leave Japan. She had no reason to, or so they would think. But she did. She had a reason to leave Soul Society, Karakura Town, and everything surrounding it. It had nothing to do with shinigami duties, or hollows outside the country that needed disposing of or any assignment she'd been given. No, it was a reason she alone knew.

It was a secret she'd kept to herself for weeks. No one could possibly know about it, as she'd never written it down anywhere and she never spoke of it; it was just a series of thoughts in her mind, and in her mind, her clever mind, no one could know. But soon, however, they would. The secret was going to be revealed very soon. There was just some work to be done first, and she would be finished, and she would bring the secret back open and revealed with her to Soul Society. And she had plenty of time to get this secret work done. As long as she finished up before the twentieth of December, everything was dandy.

And while she was taking a break here, she reasoned, why not get a quick snack and build up here energy? She thought of comparing Ichigo's food to the food here in Switzerland, and—at least this particular candy—tasted almost exactly the same as the candy sold in his town.

She'd gone into the first candy shop she could find—she'd learned a few vital German phrases and words to be able to understand where she was going, and thusly knew the German word for "candy" when she saw it—and spent a few Euros on a long candy necklace. She'd found a quiet spot near the outskirts of the city, nearer to the suburban sort of area, climbed up a tree and began stargazing while enjoying her treat.

There were only a dozen or so colored candy rings left on the string. Once she was finished eating, she'd toss the string into a trash can and begin her work again. She had a lot of things to find, and a lot of places to go to find them.

Zürich was just one stop in a series of dozens. She had many other countries to visit, many other items to fetch, many other documents to read and retrieve.

A lot of work to be done.

As she blithely nibbled off the last blue ring, the end loop of the candy necklace's string caught the little pendant around her neck and she tugged it loose gently, trying to avoid damage to the charm. She wouldn't know what she'd do if any damage came to that pendant.

Hooked onto a silver chain was a small charm hardly the size of her thumb: a little white dragon.

She fingered the dragon's tail, then tucked the damp candy string into her pocket and leapt down the tree, preparing to leave Zürich. After all, she had to be out of the country by midnight, in order to make her swift and silent way to a ship bound for Egypt which would leave at that time. She had to be in Aswan, an Egyptian city, by sunset the next day to fetch her next item and bring it back to Prague within the week. After that, her work decreed that she fetch a certain something from the Sydney Opera House and retrieve _that _three days after leaving Prague. Instructions would be given to her on what item to fetch next, and where from. Thank god for having a such a gigai as this.

Kuchiki Rukia, in the disguise of an English brunette college student, sped like lightning down the Switzerland city's streets, unseen and unheard.

She had been missing for five days.

666

In That Nameless Time And Place Where You Learn What You Need To Know

666

Matsumoto was _probably _the first one to notice it. But we can't really be sure; you never know with Matsumoto. Sometimes she would fool around by hiding things for a long time and then popping up with said thing when no one expected it. It was mostly so she could get a good laugh, since with her captain being himself, she got few from him.

What is this thing that Matsumoto noticed? Well, Hitsugaya-taichou started acting strangely…absent.

Not absent in the fact that he wasn't there—my, aren't we intelligent—but absent in the fact that he often missed the things that other people said to him. Often when speaking with the 10th Division's captain, one would hear him say, "What?" or "Say again?" more than twice in a conversation. This went on for a month until the entirety of the Seireitei wondered if he was coming down with some brain-eating disease. Unfortunate Hanataro was even forced to ask the captain if there was any treatment he felt like he needed. Eventually, after a month or so of mild worry from everyone, he brushed the whole thing off with an irritated, "I'm just thinking."

So, life went on. Here we insert Kuchiki Rukia, a shinigami everyone knew and respected. Now nearly every shinigami, captain or lieutenant or average Joe, saw each other at some point, delivering messages or working together in Hollow extermination or just passing each other in the street, and it was during the second-to-latter that Hitsugaya Toushirou and Kuchiki Rukia had their first true "meeting."

Karakura's neighboring town, not three miles away, was called Fukuoka. It was here Rukia, Hitsugaya and Ikkaku went to dispatch four new hollows, affectionately named "Mammothmouths One through Four" by Ikkaku due to their disgustingly large mouths and fangs.

These four were just a handful out of hundreds of hollows that decided that lovely April day was Thanksgiving and Karakura and its entire surrounding district was the feeding area of choice. Over six hundred came from Hueco Mundo within two and a half minutes, and countless more appeared following, and the numbers were taking their sweet time in going down. Thusly, nearly every shinigami was in a panic struggling to slay and purify them all. Divisions were forgotten; there wasn't enough time to organize them. Shinigami needed to be out there now, whether they were on their usual teams or not.

Hanataro, meek, close-to-having-a-seizure-at-the-time Hanataro, was forced to take his Zanpakuto to the human world for some very frightening hollow-slaying. (Rumor has it that he really did have a seizure.) Proper squads could not be taken in together. Members of the Eighth Division and the Second Division worked together to purify hollows in the same area and not get in each other's way. It was very hectic, and the Japanese media in the human world had a field day with all the spontaneous destruction—terrorism was blamed.

So, Ikkaku, Hitsugaya and Rukia ended up transporting themselves to the human world together, with their instructions being to kill the four "Mammothmouths" and slay as many as possible from there. If possible, find a shinigami from their unit and work with them, if not, deal with what comrades they had now.

So Rukia was there, crouching still as stone on the green canopy of a coffee shop, with Mammothmouth Two sitting in the road staring up at her. Mammothmouth Two appeared to be some kind of overly furry werewolf with kinked spikes poking out of its back. It had long arms tipped with freakishly long fingers, each one longer than an average human was tall, and these only added to its horrible appearance. If that wasn't enough, the hollow's mask pictured a gigantic ghostly, _smiling _face painted with symmetrical stripes.

An unfortunate driver, naturally not seeing the hollow, crashed into "nothing" which was really the monster's leg and died. Somewhere nearby, a female shinigami screamed in what Rukia hoped was victory. Glass and stone and steel and plaster fell from an office building that was having its roof torn off.

Did I mention that in all this Rukia was quite wounded? Well, she was.

The constant bleeding cuts and the sore bruises were things she could handle, the blood she was spitting out her mouth…well, she'd seen worse. The fact that a slash wound on her neck was giving her breathing problems? It could be fixed when she got back to Soul Society. No, what was really annoying the heck out of Rukia was that she was sure a rib of hers had been cracked or bent, and was now pointing inward at some vital organ. Every time she took in a breath, there was that pointy jab in her gut, the little painful jolt, another tiny mouthful of blood that needed to be spat or dribbled out.

Mammothmouth Two was smiling wide now, enjoying her pain as a human would enjoy a film. It noticed Rukia's hold on her Zanpakuto, Shirayuki, was faltering, and smiled wider. Seven hollows and three shinigami, including Yumichika, dashed in between Rukia and Mammothmouth Two while their staring contest went on.

Mammothmouth Two opened its mouth and chuckled when Rukia gasped out of nowhere and spat yet another mouthful of blood on her little spot on the canopy. She was now crouching in a tiny pool of blood, blood she'd spat up and blood that had oozed out her wounds.

The hollow standing in the road looked at the petite shinigami in a little blood pool and saw a sumptuous meal. This, one could tell by the fact that Mammothmouth Two had begun to drool.

Rukia accidentally took too deep a breath and her bone poked viciously into her body, forcing up another mouthful of blood that she began to choke on. Surely she had internal bleeding. Mammothmouth Two's drooling intensified. Its prey was weak and it knew it. So, bracing its long legs and curling its frighteningly long fingers, it lunged.

Rukia had raised Shirayuki and had been prepared to defend herself, despite the fact that she could no longer breathe. Mammothmouth Two couldn't have been more than five feet away from her; for a moment the hollow seemed to float in mid-air while Rukia stared down his throat.

Another sword came crashing down into the hollow's mask, straight between its eyes. Mammothmouth Two's eyes went wide and crossed comically to stare up at the shinigami standing on its head.

There was Hitsugaya-taichou, who had saved Rukia from potential death.

The hollow faded away hissing and screaming, but Rukia didn't notice, being too busy trying to force her limp arms to pound on her chest in an effort to cough up the blood in her throat. Hitsugaya turned his distinguishingly teal eyes on her and jumped off the hollow's head the second before it dissolved to nothing. He landed almost shakily on her store canopy, set Hyorinmaru down, set one arm on her shoulder and slammed the other fist into her back.

Immediately Rukia coughed up the clot of blood that'd been stuck in her throat, and defending the fact that she was not weak, stood up and tried to hack and cough blood as dignified as possible. At the same time she picked up her Zanpakuto and prepared to speed off for more hollow-purifying. Then, realizing her life was more than likely saved by the captain, she turned to him and said, "Thank you, Hitsugaya-taichou. I owe you my life…" She would have said a bit more, had she not felt the rib bone jabbing into her body again. Her face must have contorted into some weird expression, as Hitsugaya raised a white brow at her.

Saying "excuse me" while coughing up blood was not the most polite gesture, and after this Hitsugaya certainly deserved politeness, so she didn't bother excusing herself. Instead, knowing just how stupid she must have looked hacking up blood and trying to apologize for it, she bowed quickly and took off. She jumped off the green store canopy they'd been standing on, and dashed down the street, ignoring the furious pain in her ribs and speeding fast as lightning as far away as she could.

_'Gods, how__ embarrassing…How foolish I must have looked__…' _was the only thought going through her mind now.

Since she didn't dare turn back to see if he was still there, Rukia missed the strange expression with which Hitsugaya watched her run off.

We're going to stop this encounter right here.

You see, nothing else important to our tale goes on here. The fact that the innocent town of Fukuoka was practically demolished and that the humans couldn't possibly fathom how all the destruction came about and how World War III almost occurred because of flying governmental accusations really doesn't matter, so let's not go into that. No, we're going to skip to Rukia and Hitsugaya's next encounter, which took place two days after the above meeting.

Yamamoto-genryusai, who was to say the least _absolutely fucking furious _with how poorly the mass hollow extermination went, had left Seireitei for some unknown reason shortly after verbally exploding in front of a frightened Ukitake Jushiro and left the division captains in charge of things. Most assumed he left to blow off some steam, and once they said this to their gossiping friends it became such a strange and downright scary thing to talk about that most couldn't keep up a conversation about it. Because, honestly, when did old Yamamoto get angry?

It was during this awkward times of "So…the captains are governing for now?" and "Kenpachi-sama's probably going to be a tyrant…" Rukia decided she should really thank Hitsugaya Toushirou for saving her. One thank you and a coughing fit were not proper ways of gratitude for a captain. At the least, she could go to him and thank him personally, clearly and up front.

She did just that, feeling nothing but rightness and politeness in her actions the entire walk there. She found him standing under a tree in a secluded, quiet area, reading some kind of document that was crinkled and old and likely something important. Rukia almost didn't go up to him that day, thinking he would have liked his reading time to be undisturbed. But she _had _gone up to him then, and that made so much difference…

"Hitsugaya-taichou," she called, walking as straight and yet as casual as she could manage without looking foolish. He looked up, and Rukia blinked in surprise—somehow she'd been absent-minded enough to not notice how tall he had grown. He was still not towering over most other boys and probably never would, but like many people, he towered over _her, _and thusly to Rukia he was to be considered "tall."

She stopped precisely four and a half feet from where he stood, and, skillfully being able to ignore the way those eyes of his were boring into her, said, "I thought I should come by to thank you properly for the other day. The hollow could have seriously injured me and you saved me, possibly from death, Hitsugaya-taichou. I'm afraid I don't know any other way to show my gratitude," And she bowed again, low and respectful.

"You're welcome," he said, and to Rukia the voice did not sound formal. "I did what anyone would do, Rukia. It'd be a shame to lose you."

_'Calling me by my first name?' _Confused at the verbal gesture, she bowed again and sidestepped that subject, easily controlling her voice to hide the confusion and slight embarrassment. "Thank you again. That means a lot to me. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, tell me and I will gladly do so."

He rolled up the scroll he'd been reading and held it out to her. "Fine. Start by taking this to Matsumoto, on the other side of Seireitei. As fast as possible, please."

_'And saying "please"?' _Rukia thought. And, not being able to come up with a better explanation she settled for a stupid yet plausible one: _'Perhaps Matsumoto-fukutaicho put something in his drink?' _Unknowing she spent nearly ten seconds staring at the rolled-up scroll in her hand, thinking up reason after reason as to why Hitsugaya was acting this way.

"Rukia. Rukia." Rukia's dark eyes turned to him, hiding her surprise at how she could have just stood there staring at the scroll right after he'd told her to take it away. "Yes, yes, of course." She turned and walked back the way she'd come. She hadn't taken five steps in that direction when she swore, _swore, _she heard Hitsugaya say something. Was it to her, to himself, or to some other individual she couldn't see? Whomever he was speaking to, the phrase was so strange to Rukia she nearly shivered: "Run, rabbit."

She didn't, run, though. No, she took her time jogging at a fair pace that wasn't slow nor fast, mind awhirl with thoughts of who the hell the captain had been talking to just now. And as she made the journey to find Matsumoto Rangiku, she convinced herself that Hitsugaya's lieutenant truly _had _put something in his drink.

And that ended their second encounter.

There were many after.

Rukia was beginning to assume that the scrolls she thought were crinkled, old and important were nothing more than written messages between the 10th Division captain and his lieutenant; when Rukia approached Matsumoto the lieutenant ordered Rukia to take a scroll to one of them at least once per day, sometimes more. She never once looked inside the scrolls. Matsumoto and Hitsugaya never told her why she was chosen to do this for them and she never asked.

She was given scrolls tied with string to take to either captain or lieutenant, and when she got to the receiver they made light and pleasant and even relaxing conversation: "Hitsugaya-taichou! Here's Matsumoto-fukutaicho's scroll. You're always somewhere different, aren't you? May I ask what you're doing with Yumichika-san's division? I don't remember you being fond of them." "Ah, there was some screw-up by Kyoraku-san…He, Izuru and Hinamori are going…it's very complicated." "Could you think up a quick summary?"

It was the middle of April when Rukia's "carrier pigeon" business began. It never occurred to the girl, not once, that a hell butterfly could have done her delivering business twice as fast.

This and the rest of Rukia's business and everyone else's lives went on. Rukia never noticed the people of Seireitei and Rukongai staring at her, as she was usually deep in thought every hour of the day. Indeed, the people were also surprised to see Kuchiki Rukia going to see _the _Hitsugaya Toushirou every day. This didn't mean that they thought badly of it, though. They knew she was merely carrying a message scroll, but it was the fact that Hitsugaya was more than often found in public places when awaiting a message from her. Thusly, other shinigami and people would see them together. Surely he knew this.

All smiled, nodded and silently cheered for Hitsugaya's choice, the female shinigami who disregarded her own beauty, and never noticed when others admired it.

Rukia, never noticing the people gazing at her when with the captain, grew used to seeing him and his lieutenant. She delivered at message per day, at least, from mid-April till mid-June. After the first four days or so, she grew used to it, but not quite "comfortable" with it. To know that captain Hitsugaya addressed her by first name and not her family name was just so very bizarre, she wasn't sure if she'd ever get used to it.

At this point, when she _didn't_ deliver a letter to Matsumoto or Hitsugaya, she considered it to be an unusual day, indeed—every other resident of Soul Society thought this, too, and no one enjoyed a day when Rukia and Hitsugaya were not seen together.

It was late June, the 28th—so says the group of cheering and squealing girls who often followed the two around in hiding—when Hitsugaya took his scroll from Rukia. Rukia stared up at the sky, politely looking away from the captain's private message. "I visited Ichigo last night. Caught up on several things. He brought you up in conversation, called you several…unsatisfying names. I thought that you may want me to take back some retaliation-message to him?" The last sentence was spoken with a joking smile.

"Rukia."

"Mm?"

"I want you to call me Toushirou from now on."

A few seconds of silence. No cricket dared chirp.

"…Pardon?"

"You heard me."

"I'm sure you mean Toushirou-_taichou_…" Rukia knew her voice, her voice that could hide emotion so well, faltered for once. She had sounded unspeakably stupid and shocked.

"No. You will call me by name."

"I…That's a great honor! Thank you."

"…" He was staring at her. Accusingly. As though not saying his name was sin.

"Thank you very much, Toushirou…"

"Good."

"Can I ask the reason why you'd let me do this?"

His eyes had been back down on the scroll, reading. With his teal eyes still lazily on the document he raised a hand and put it on her head. The captain was petting her. "You will find out later." Rukia was silent and dumbstruck and growing increasingly frightened under Hitsugaya's casual and surely meaningful touch. Deciding now would be an absolutely wondrous time to make herself scarce, Rukia began backing away, hoping the captain's hand would slide off. It didn't.

No, he moved his hand from the top of her head to her shoulder and pulled her back, closer than she'd been before. Rukia kept her expression mostly calm, but couldn't keep back a few blinks of surprise. Frantically searching for a reason, she told herself that Hitsugaya—no, Toushirou—wanted her to see something on the scroll. But no. He kept reading the long document like he had all the time in the world, once even drumming his fingers on her lean shoulder bone.

After three and a half nervous minutes of waiting, the petite shinigami asked, "When do you plan to let me go?" Hitsugaya turned oddly dark eyes on her, expression grave and serious, and said, "Never."

As you may guess, Rukia, being unknowledgeable in such areas, had no idea what he meant. She grew indignant, thinking he was playing some childish game. Slightly irritated, she retorted, "Never? I'll have to be back home very soon. Nii-sama will worry, and if you'd like to answer to him—"

Hitsugaya interrupted her. He had laughed, an unfamiliar and warm sound to Rukia's ears, and smiled. It was possibly the first happy and genuine smile she'd seen him give. And after this, I'm sure we can all guess what happened next. If you cannot guess, then I shall tell you: Hitsugaya moved Rukia closer using the hand he had on her shoulder, and kissed the top of her head.

"Fine." he said. He turned her around with the same hand he'd pulled her close with, and used the other to drop the scroll into her own hands. "Take that back to Matsumoto. She won't be blaming me if she doesn't get it immediately, rabbit."

"Rabbit?" she parroted rather dumbly. "Yeah, what else?" he replied as though the answer were quite obvious. "Now, run." This time Rukia did run. She glanced backwards at Hitsugaya, tensed at the look in his eyes she'd never seen before and ran as though hellhounds were chasing her.

That was the day, June 28th, when Kuchiki Rukia was unofficially spoken for.

Rukia delivered the scroll to Matsumoto Rangiku before going home that night. Matsumoto acted as though it were a normal day. That is, she _acted, _in that she spoke normally and did normal things, but the look in her eyes showed pure mischief, showed the fact that she _knew _something had happened just before Rukia came to her. Matsumoto, the tricky bitch, had known about, maybe even planned, the event with Hitsugaya that night. One look at Rukia's flustered face told her that tonight was the night when her taichou had finally decided to make his first move. The group of teary-eyed, squealing girls who'd been hiding in the bushes near Hitsugaya and Rukia nearly fainted of excessive nosebleeds that night.

The next day Rukia took a scroll from Matsumoto early in the morning, who insisted it be taken to her taichou as soon as possible. Rukia, now understanding that Matsumoto was in on it—whatever "it" was—knew that it really didn't need to be there as soon as possible, but Hitsugaya _wanted _it as soon as possible.

She'd found the captain at his usual "seclusion" spot, standing under a single tree in the largest of clearings. Of course, Hitsugaya didn't need the scroll as soon as possible. For some reason, he wanted to talk to her. Rukia, ridiculously, brought along her Zanpakuto, as though she would need it to defend herself. Then again, the ridiculous had already happened: The icy 10th Division taichou had bloody _kissed _her, so taking a sword on this visit wasn't _that _absurd. He'd been sitting against the tree trunk instead of standing next to it, a change Rukia took note of immediately. She sat down next to him, handed him the scroll, and said quite bluntly, "What were you trying to tell me yesterday?"

Looking relaxed and lazy and quite content, Hitsugaya spent a few good minutes explaining. Apparently, he'd had his eye on her for several years now, and how she was never aware of it was incredible. He had been waiting for a much more peaceful time to approach her and the silly letter-delivering was the most convenient little device Matsumoto had ever thought up for him. With the incidents of Aizen and then the Arrancar plaguing the entirety of Soul Society for months and months on end, he'd thought it would be plain ludicrous to stake a claim then. Rukia did not ask what that phrase was supposed to mean. Now nothing was wrong with the world except the constant but mostly controllable existence of hollows, and there was no better time than now, and did she accept him, and if not, was she prepared to face the consequences?

She ignored the bluntness of the whole thing, ignored especially the last bit about "consequences" and stared at him. She was giving the impression of staring him right in the eyes and searching his soul when she was truly deep in her thoughts and not really seeing him. Rukia said, half-joking and half-serious, "I think I'll need more than three weeks of being your mail carrier…" Why did he appear to be fighting down a smile when so far her response sounded negative?

"And—perhaps if…" He wasn't even fighting the smile now.

It may have been the smile that made something click in Rukia's mind: for whatever reason, the memory of him saving her from Mammothmouth Two. "And since you saved my life not long ago, I owe you a chance at the least." But Hitsugaya knew had had her now, no matter how unsure she sounded of herself. One could say their relationship truly started there.

Two months later, in mid-August, Hitsugaya, after weeks of showing off his claim of Kuchiki Rukia, (Byakuya, though never liking the idea of "sharing" his sister, grudgingly agreed to the relationship as there were few better men than he to take care of her) Hitsugaya did perhaps the most human cliché romantic move he could have possibly done: he got her jewelry. A single piece of jewelry.

On a silver chain was a little charm made of some stone or jewel Rukia couldn't recognize. This charm, the size of Rukia's thumb, was fashioned into the shape of a white dragon: Hyorinmaru. When Rukia wore this it showed, if not Hitsugaya's immense feelings for Rukia, that said Kuchiki belonged to Seireitei's own possessive white dragon, Hitsugaya Toushirou.

Despite all this, Rukia still called the captain "Hitsugaya-taichou," which said taichou did not enjoy, and would sometimes go so far as to give chase or pounce on her when she called him by the wrong name. But that was alright; Rukia had speed on her side when being chased or pursued by anyone, and it was a challenge even for Hitsugaya to catch her.

Another trait of Hitsugaya's was the occasional meddling, the meddling he insisted was for her own well-being and _no, _Rukia, it was not childish. This was mostly evident in the fact that he disliked her hiding anything from him, be it a lunch she packed or a wound received during a fight with a hollow. There were no secrets kept from Inspector Toushirou, and if there were, the punishments were dire. Hitsugaya made it no secret that he enjoyed the punishments. Rukia did not, and he was making a point to change that.

There was also the (according to Rukia's female friends, "sexy") possessiveness, the trait that made him like some child that wouldn't share a favorite toy. He had problems with her visits to Ichigo or Inoue in the human world, with her sparring with Renji, hell, with her going anyplace he couldn't go with her. Rukia found this laughable while many others found it immensely attractive—she did, too, but she wouldn't dare go around telling this. For the time being, she was alright with Hitsugaya—Toushirou, she always said in her mind—growling at any unidentified or identified-but-unwanted male that came near her. It was in one of these moments, when Yumichika was shamelessly and teasingly flirting with Rukia just to ruffle the captain's feathers.

Rukia had been smiling, knowing it was a joke and knowing laughing out loud at it might not be best for Yumichika's well-being, when one considered who she was standing next to. But the man next to her, who after weeks of meeting her day after day somewhat selfishly considered himself her lover, found no amusement in the narcissist's behavior. Brimming with anger he'd pulled Rukia away from Yumichika and gladly stole Rukia's first kiss.

Yumichika was the only one to see it, but boasted to everyone it lasted precisely four and one fourth seconds, and was possibly the most stunning thing he'd seen in the last month. The little, loving nuzzle he gave the speechless girl afterward made the event seem even more spectacular.

Once she'd gathered her wits, though, Rukia had been furious, mouthing off to and even threatening one very satisfied and smug captain who would not stop smirking down at her.

Hitsugaya Toushirou had been a much happier man after that day, and all others took notice.

After the kiss he seemed to remember the nickname "rabbit" and whenever his love failed to call him by his name he retaliated by "forgetting" her name and replacing it with the nickname. Often he did this in public, letting the other souls around them remember that Rukia was his pet rabbit, and enjoying it when they nodded and giggled approvingly at the two of them together. Rukia, being very used to Hitsugaya indeed, tolerated it all the time, and even she acknowledged (not out loud, however) that they were a "thing" and when others asked who her boyfriend was, she would easily answer. She still felt slightly shy about admitting things like that in front of him, though, and he was helping her work on that.

With all these things working in their favor, it seemed to everyone that Hitsugaya and Rukia would be one of the happiest couples in Soul Society. Some wondered why in the hell Hitsugaya hadn't asked for her hand yet. (The common reply was "Byakuya, you baka!")

Two more months passed. November was here now. It was bringing chilly breezes and warm, earthy colors of autumn and warning of the colder weather to come in later months. It was in November that the shock of the time occurred. November the 25th, it was.

Rukia and Hitsugaya had requested permission to dispatch the most recent hollows together, and had come back from three hollow-filled, content hours with each other late at night. Hitsugaya insisted she be given a reward for doing two-thirds of the slaying; Rukia insisted she'd had a lot of energy to burn that night and no reward was needed, thank you. Hitsugaya was firm, and gave a reward that lasted several seconds, a little tongue action mostly on his side, and a good-night caress on the cheek from his little rabbit afterward.

He'd watched her enter the Kuchiki house without looking back as she usually did, being defiant in her own way as always. He'd left that night for his home feeling tired and ready for a good night's sleep and a good-morning kiss as soon as possible.

Hitsugaya never got it.

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November 25th, 8:44 AM

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Rukia was fifteen minutes late for their sparring.

That never happened.

Renji became worried the moment he found she was _five _minutes late. Fifteen made three times the worry burn in his stomach. There was always the possibility that Hitsugaya-taichou or Matsumoto-fukutaicho had held her up. That wouldn't be surprising, considering how the captain wanted her all to himself whenever he could have her, and Matsumoto would often stand by commenting on how cute they looked and pointing out the fact the anyone who passed by.

Renji told himself that until half an hour had passed. Even Hitsugaya-taichou would have let her come to him for sparring by now. He never kept her longer than this when he knew she had something to do in the morning. Come to think of it, didn't _he _usually have something to do in the morning? Being a captain probably commanded more work than Renji bothered to care about. Yes, even Hitsugaya would realize he had work to do and leave Rukia alone.

But she never came.

_'Fuck waiting!' _he thought, and practically tore down the fighting ground's gates to get through them. Something here was _wrong. _

Renji turned the corner and jumped to the side, narrowly missing a painful collision with Hinamori Momo. The dark-haired lieutenant cried out and jumped like a frightened deer when Renji almost crashed into her. Renji, hopping rather stupidly on one foot in preparation to get running again, said, "Hinamori-fukutaicho, sorry, sorry. Have you, er, seen Rukia anywhere? She's really late for—"

"Late?" Hinamori interrupted and echoed with a blink. "No, I haven't seen her. Yamamoto-genryusai, he sent me to fetch her because she's late to meet him this morning. He said…t-that at this time of day she's usually with you."

_'Oh yeah, I forgot she said she had to go see him today before coming to meet me.__ Real smart, Renji.__'_That didn't solve the problem, though. He was already feeling edgy enough that she'd been late to their sparring, and even though he should have known she would be late to meet the Captain Commander, Hinamori's news only made it worse: She'd been late to meet _Yamamoto. _

Something was so very wrong. He didn't need that goddamn shiver in his spine to know that.

"I haven't seen her yet. She was late to meet me, too." Hinamori's eyes showed fear instinctually, but she pushed it away with a generous piece of courage. "Well, perhaps she's already there. I can go check, i-if you'd like me to."

"Nah, nah, I'll do it! Thanks, Hinamori." He didn't really care that he'd missed the honorific on her name, the female lieutenant would forgive him, and once he told Rukia the humorous story she'd probably force him to apologize, anyway. The Captain Commander's office was only a dozen leaps and bounds away at the speed he was going. Adrenaline, thank whatever god that made it, gave him speed and combined with shunpo, he found himself knocking on the door before he had taken five more breaths into his lungs.

Renji sensed no reiatsu in the room but waited almost thirty seconds anyway. He opened the door the moment he counted thirty-one, and found there was no one inside.

Someone came up behind him.

It was a comrade, not an enemy, he knew that without looking. There was Byakuya-taichou, with such a stressed expression it was a wonder his gritted teeth weren't grinding and cracking against each other. "Byakuya-taichou, Rukia's—"

"I know."

"Yamamoto-genryusai said she was supposed to—"

"I know."

He took a different path this time: "Do you know where she is?"

His fists clenched. Kuchiki Byakuya was angry. "Blood was found in her room. Signs of a struggle. We believe someone took her late last night." Renji's eyes went wide, his other features were expressionless. "Any individual connected to her is being told to come to the manor immediately," Byakuya went on. "We must see if anyone knows anything." Renji nodded, feeling something horrible and ominous bounce around in his stomach. Things like this were to be expected in times such as when Aizen was still alive…but a kidnapping out of nowhere, when nothing had gone wrong in months?

Shunpo had them both at the Kuchiki manor within minutes. Several shinigami and even Rukongai residents stood outside, murmuring and whispering with wide eyes. Renji entered through Rukia's window, knowing she had a habit of not locking it. Byakuya, strangely, followed him. Yamamoto, the Captain Commander, stood in the doorway, and Hinamori Momo was in the corner opposite the window, a communicator in her hand. She was pressing buttons rapidly, too many to be dialing a number. She was typing letters, messaging.

The room itself didn't look _that _bad, excluding the spatter of blood on the floor next to the bed, the scratched floorboards and the patch of wallpaper near the blood spot that looked like animal claws had torn it away.

"Do you have any idea?" Renji asked fervently. The question was directed at both Hinamori and Yamamoto. "This was kidnapping." Yamamoto stated hotly. "There are reiatsu traces here…but they're human. A human has stolen Kuchiki Rukia." Renji heard Byakuya's knuckles crack as he clenched his hands. Feeling nothing else could be said, he asked, "…And Hitsugaya-taichou?"

Yamamoto turned blank eyes to Hinamori. "Momo, are you nearly done?" She nodded quickly but her button-punching pace never slowed. "He's known for almost an hour. He's searching everywhere. M-Matsumoto-fukutaicho and Komamura-taichou are the only ones that don't know yet…I'm notifying them…"

It had to be asked. Renji got it over with. "And is Hitsugaya-taichou alright?" Yamamoto opened his mouth but Hinamori interrupted whatever he was going to say with a short, nervous attempt at a laugh.

"He's…he's furious."

666

Wow. Did I _eat _Hitsugaya's character or _what? _Well, I love the possessive element in anime guys, so I added that and all the qualities that come with it. (One of those is apparently making Hitsugaya something of a flirt.) Ah, I find comfort and justice in that there are so many worse fics out there that have him doing so many worse things…his character as portrayed here can't be all that bad. If you want to complain about OOC, complain about those fics. I already warned you about this and you're the one that read it.

Well, it's 2:30 in the morning here and I'd better post this before I lose anymore sleep. Thank god it's a Saturday—or Sunday morning?—and I'll be able to sleep in Sunday morning and get back most of my lost time.

Yes, I know the beginning is contrasting: Rukia saying that she left Soul Society without anyone knowing and then at the end we find she was actually kidnapped. Did she leave on her own accord or was she taken by someone and find escape? And what are these random items that Rukia has to travel all over the world to get before December 20th? Here is the most classic expression on this site: READ AND FIND OUT.

Join the HitsuRuki army, you fools. I did and it's ownage.

Ta…Storm


	2. She Who Was Found

Hm, what to say for my first comment? Hmm…Oh, I've got one. I hate how Hitsugaya's first name is constantly spelled with different vowels. We've got Toushirou which I find easiest and most logical, and Toshirou and Toshiro and Toushiro and it's so freaking irritating…

I can only remember a few times when I've wanted to write something this bad, and this is one of those times. One of those times where I can't make myself stop even if I'm dead tired or really late for something so be glad for it! You're getting your second chapter early compared to a lot of authors who are lazy with their work.

**Reviews:**

**LittleFoxDemon: **I know it's cute, but I can't find the element that makes it cute; it's just one of those things that magically _is. _And enjoy the possessiveness all you want, I like writing it so there's bound to be lots.

**Cutegoth: **I didn't want to waste too much time on how their relationship started (even thought that did take up like two thirds of the chapter, but whatever) so this was a good way to start. Now we can get on to a little action and suspense with Rukia's search-and-rescue team.

**Aizi: **I put in a bunch of funny moments in there on purpose, it's so fun to sprinkle random humor moments where they don't really belong.

**CrazyOnDisplay: **Thank you; I was very worried about the OOC thing. In the beginning, I actually considered not posting it because of that but that thought only lasted five seconds, don't worry. Writing first chapters where you don't really know what's going on is a favorite story-starter of mine. Makes you want to keep going, find out what the hell's happening. Oh, and yes, eventually the army shall increase, in time we shall rival even IchiRuki…one day.

**BlackBelt: **(Dude. Review from favorite author. Awesome.) This beats your story? I think _not! _But I shall write more and please you and everyone else who's enjoying this, and as a fan of your own HitsuRuki story I'll be a reviewer for a second and say "Update soon". I think I love's Rukia's "rabbit" pet name just as much as you. It makes me smile whenever I type it.

**ColourPearl: **Thank you much; "amazing" always lifts the author's ego. I shall begin writing…now.

**Iana Sabelle: **The army shall triumph one day, Matsumoto always seemed like a good scapegoat to me and I never considered that their lovestruck side not being shown in the manga makes this less OOC, but that's a nice thought. I'll keep it in mind definitely.

**Sweet Sacrifice: **Something "this good"? Thank you! You make this fanfiction seem so superior, and interesting and funny is just how I tried to make it, thank you much.

The Second Half Of The Two-Shot

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November 25, 11:55 AM

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When Hinamori had said a few hours ago that Hitsugaya was furious at the disappearance of his love, there wasn't anyone who doubted it. If there was one fish-brained idiot who thought Hinamori was exaggerating, they should have seen how fast and how angrily Hitsugaya ran around the Seireitei and Rukongai. His reiatsu was burning like living flames; some people who were near his current area of search backed away because the force of it was so powerful and angry. The souls who were wiser or stronger than average citizens, shinigami mostly, might have noticed little specks of worry and fear dotting the whole mess of fury in the captain's reiatsu.

He would literally tear into places to search for her, pieces of rock and earth were ripped from the ground and boulders were demolished to dust piles and everyone stayed well away from him. So when a proper team and the Bureau of Technological Development had organized themselves to properly search for the missing Kuchiki, everyone was at a loss as to tell Hitsugaya about it. Many were afraid he would accidentally—or maybe even purposefully—cause them injuries for approaching him at such a time. But he needed to know that Seireitei was needing his leadership in searching, and surely she would be found faster if he led a team of many highly-trained shinigami.

Hinamori was the one to volunteer, wanting to help her old friend. She, with lieutenant Abarai following behind so as to protect her if lashed out at, left Seireitei for the areas beyond.

By now, Hitsugaya had been through all of Seireitei and Rukongai and was now sweeping the rural areas beyond. They followed the trail of destruction and hot, angry reiatsu for four miles. Hinamori found her old friend standing at the foot of a grassy hill, eyes closed and head bowed and a trio of cracks in the earth where he had doubtlessly slammed down his sword in frustration. Despite the damage in front of him, the captain looked almost calm. Renji's sword was on his Zanpakuto just in case.

Gulping, she alerted the captain of her presence using a term she hoped would let him know who was speaking to him: "Shiro-chan?" Said Shiro-chan didn't reply. Hinamori took slow steps closer to Hitsugaya until she was close enough to touch him if she wanted.

"Hitsugaya-taichou…you're wanted to lead the search party. It only makes sense that she'll be found sooner if a highly-trained team is searching for her, doesn't it? The human reiatsu in her room is being tracked right now. By the time you get back to Seireitei they'll probably have the human identified."

"There were three."

Hinamori looked up at him. The captain's eyes were open. Open, cold, enraged. "Hidden in the first, there were two more. Those two reiatsu trails lead here. That," he looked at the three giant crevices in the ground. "That was here already. She struggled and fought the two that had captured her. And…this is a dead end."

"Rukia-san's reiatsu wasn't found anywhere, Shiro-chan I can't even sense it here. How do you know she fought them in this spot?" Immediately she regretted it; Hitsugaya snapped his head to look her in the eyes and pinned her with his own frozen orbs, the eyes that bored into her so fiercely she could not look away and struggled to keep frightened tears from coming into her eyes. The answer, she somehow read in his expression, was that there was no other answer. How else could those crevices have come about, if not by a struggle?

"There…there won't be a dead end a-at-at the first trail of reiatsu, I know it." she stammered, hoping for anything that would stop him from glaring down at her like this, "She must be somewhere! Please come back and lead the search party, Hitsugaya-taichou. If you—" But he'd turned away. He moved a few steps forward, unsheathed his Zanpakuto and walked a few more steps dragging it sluggishly on the ground. He turned away from the three crevices in the ground and walked farther away from them. Then without warning he raised Hyorinmaru and struck the ground with a shout that echoed everywhere.

A sort of tree-shaped gash appeared in the ground, one huge fissure moving forward with dozens of smaller cracks in the ground appearing out from the middle. The top, "tree-trunk" fissure extended a quarter mile before stopping, and an outcropping of boulders sitting atop a hill fell into a crack in the earth and tumbled inside the planet's crust with great echoes. Hitsugaya sheathed his sword and suddenly zipped away past Hinamori and Renji, back towards Seireitei, leaving the two lieutenants speechless in the dust. They glanced worriedly at each other, happy yet nervous that he hadn't lashed out at them, and followed the captain.

Hopefully, he'd control his anger once they got back to civilization. Hopefully Rukia would be rescued soon, for the good of Soul Society, and for Hitsugaya's own sake.

Hinamori could only imagine how much his heart must hurt.

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December 12th, 2:25 PM

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Lukas Lombardi was Rukia's only means of getting this accomplished. He was from London, he claimed, but Rukia didn't believe him and she didn't ask, knowing he had his reasons to lie. She knew from newspapers that he was from Venice, even though his accept did that no justice. Whatever his nationality was, Lombardi—he insisted she call him by his last name for some reason—was her key to making all her hard work pay off. It had been absolute _hell _to prepare everything for her leave on the 25th a week or two ago, and was hoping all the time that she wouldn't be suspected of some kind of treason. She hoped to the gods that everyone truly believed she was kidnapped.

She liked to think that Hitsugaya wouldn't go on a rampage looking for her, but both the little devil and the angel on her shoulders would mentally slap her for thinking he would contain any emotion that was connected to her. He'd probably annihilated Soul Society already in a search for her, and this search was what scared her the most. If she was found before she and Lombardi finished their work, everything would stop. Rukia's plan would have to be dropped with the snap of a finger; she had to keep herself hidden all the time for fear that shinigami would be near her, searching.

Those were her two main things to accomplish: stay hidden from other shinigami and fetch Lombardi's items. If she could succeed in these two things—if she could—god, that would be perfect.

"Rukia, Rukia! I've got the next one on the list!" Lombardi was calling.

She opened her eyes, instinctively swept the area for another shinigami's reiatsu, found none, and rose from the bed. Just because she sensed no other Soul Society dwellers near didn't mean she relaxed very much. No, she was aware all the time no matter how lazy or relaxed she appeared or felt. She opened the door and made her soundless way down the curving corridor lined with dozens of other doors. The cracked double-doors at the end of the hallway led to Lombardi's workroom, the place he usually stayed in this underground sanctuary.

She twisted the dented pewter knob and let herself in, feeling cold ash and dust cooling her warm feet. She closed the door. Lombardi was sitting in his usual chair near the middle of the room in front of a huge desk covered with little instruments and artifacts, some he'd found and some he made himself. Apart from the dust and smoky cigarette powder on the floor, Lombardi's workroom was perfectly clean.

The dirty wooden floor was a complete contrast to the marble sink in the corner and the polished mahogany table on which he did most of his work. It was lit with generously bright fluorescent lights. There were no windows in the room, but there were nine little air vents that led up to hidden locations on the surface, two of which were just the right size for a person as small as her to climb out of if the room were ever invaded. The same went for Lombardi as well; though he was of average height, he was sickly skinny and lanky. In the far corner of the room was what Rukia had first assumed to be a fireplace. It was a forge, she realized stupidly when she saw the hot anvil sitting in front of it. A cauldron of liquid metal hung over it, warming that half of the room.

Rukia spent as much time in this room as was possible, and it had become a hobby of the girl's in the past days. Watching the man work was absolutely fascinating, and she loved to watch the deft movements of his hands on anything he held or used. But she wasn't here often. In fact, she'd only been in this room four times, counting this one, and she wished she could stay more.

But that couldn't happen; she had to be out fetching the items Lombardi needed, and as one can imagine, going to other countries takes up time, so she didn't often get to watch Lombardi work or sleep in the bed he'd set up for her.

What truly made Lombardi special was that he was born with the same odd power that Ichigo Kurosaki himself had: he could see spirits. When he looked at Rukia, he saw the dark-haired, dark-eyed petite shinigami that was truly there, while most humans would look at her and see the brunette British teen that was her gigai. Lombardi was almost frighteningly calm about his ability; when Rukia had approached him she was surprised to find he could see her true body. He'd nodded, asked a bit about the afterlife and then laughed, "So there really isn't a God up there? Aw, damn."

And once she'd explained her situation to him, Rukia had begun her work of fetching items for Lombardi to work with.

He always had new things on the mahogany table at which he worked, and this time it was covered with dozens of little rocks and jewels and metal samples. In the corner of the table there were half a dozen silver, pointy instruments Rukia had never seen before in her life—excluding that little one that looked somewhat like a saw.

Lombardi's hair was ash-blonde; she didn't know if this was because of all the ash and dust on the floor of the room or because he'd been born with it. They matched his blue eye perfectly, and when I say "eye," I mean that Lombardi's right eye was blind. One could not tell by looking; it seemed to be an ordinary human eye, but the man could see nothing but blackness through it, so he wore a green, cloth eyepatch over it.

Lombardi was using a copper magnifying glass with a spike protruding out one end to poke a little hole into a sphere of jet-black stone. His left foot pushed a pedal under the mahogany desk that didn't seem to be working any of the little machines nearby. "So, where am I heading next?" she asked casually, seating herself on the little stool next to Lombardi's desk.

"If I'm right…Quebec." he answered, blowing into the hole he'd made in the black rock. He pushed the magnifying glass' little spike farther in, and the two of them heard something crack within the rock. He pulled out the spike slowly, gingerly, and found there was a black, very reflective little speck pierced onto the end like a piece of meat on a fork. "Yes!" he hissed happily. He dropped the speck into a silver tray on a little stand next to him.

"And for what this time?" Rukia asked as she watched the man's hands carefully push the copper spike once again into the small, red rock.

"Polymer clay, for one thing," Lombardi answered. "I need to cast the second mold, and polymer clay'll take the least time for me. I know only two people who have the type that I need. One's a jackass who'll give you one ounce for a thousand dollars and the other's a good friend who'll give me a pound for twenty dollars. Guess where the friend lives."

"And the other thing?"

"Well it turns out the diamond you got in Sydney was fake, but I know another, more reliable place to get one. But if you don't think that matters on this, there's just one more thing—"

"No, no, I'll get the real diamond. I said I want this made flawless, and if that means more work, then I'll deal with it."

"Suit yourself; the diamond's in a little suburb sort of near Menden."

"And what country would Menden be in?"

"Germany. And after that, I'll need a special ingredient for the white paint. I've got this mixing technique, see, and if I have the certain blend of paint I can make sure it will never fade or peel. Hell will freeze over before that paint fades a single shade."

Rukia waited anxiously for the location of this ingredient. "Agaricus Blazei Murrill." said Lombardi, blue eye widening as he remembered it.

"Er, what?"

"A mushroom. The Brazilian mushroom. Gimme that, and combine it with the rest of my ingredients and there's your magic paint."

"Where in Brazil?"

"Uhhhh…" Lombardi took on a rather stupid expression as his memory suddenly failed him. Rukia found this odd, as Lombardi was a clever man to be able to hide from the law for so many years, and he wasn't even thirty-five yet, so memory loss should be far from him. "My dad took me to Romaina once when I was twelve. Damn, what was that town called? I dunno. You'll have to go to Brazil and get a brochure or something to find out where they grow."

Rukia sighed quietly and shook her head, but said nothing. Scouring an entire country in search of a mushroom was not her idea of…anything, really. But she'd do it anyway. If she was lucky, she'd come back to Prague and Lombardi's secret hideout with a little knowledge of Brazilian culture and language. Ah, wait, there was no such thing as "Brazilian language." They spoke Portuguese, didn't they? Or was it Spanish?

Deciding not to bury herself in her thoughts like she usually did, Rukia jumped out of her mess of thoughts and asked, "Do you know how long the painting will take?"

"Since we had to hurry a little and get the details before the main pieces," Lombardi said slowly, "I'm going to have to paint around a lot of this…usually I'd say an hour, but it might take two. Two and a half or three if I'm being really damn careful."

"We need that 'really damn careful' element, Lombardi. I'll get you as much time as I can."

"Sure, sure. I still have work to do with the opal eyes and a hella lotta work with all the gold parts, so you got time."

Rukia let herself smile and let her eyes brighten with joy; if she did these things in front of Hitsugaya, he would be making a playful comment on how rabbits have bright eyes. The last time she'd made such a blissful expression in front of him he'd seem to grow so happy that he was compelled to lick the side of her neck. You may have already guessed that Rukia was surprised and tried to pull away, and you may have already guessed that Hitsugaya did not let her.

But Hitsugaya was far away from here, and she could brighten her eyes and smile all she wanted without having the man all over her. The time she spent with Lombardi and fetching his items was a bit of a break from Hitsugaya's constant attention. Not that she didn't enjoy his attention, but a bit of peace was nice once in awhile.

"Do you have any idea what will come after that? Should I come back with the polymer and the opal, or fetch the third item and come back with that, too?" Lombardi paused at the question, and tapped the copper spike thoughtfully on his blonde bangs.

"I can't decide if I would need the steel or an oyster pearl. It would be easier to tell once the mold's finished…Just bring those two back here. You know, once I get the steel and the pearl it'll be almost done." Rukia's eyes went from Lombardi's copper spike to his eyes. "It would just need to cool and harden, and if you add a little bit of your raytsu, that shouldn't take more than a few hours. Then this thing will be harder than steel, and I guarantee it'll never crack or break."

"Reiatsu," Rukia corrected, chuckling. "You think I should take off now?"

"Not in broad daylight, woman! Wait till the sun sets. Don't you know the first rule of sneaking around is to do it at night?" Rukia rolled her eyes and smiled. Lombardi, that nice man, was looking out for her. And she should have known better asking to leave now. To leave in broad daylight would be to expose herself and Lombardi. She would be taken back to Soul Society if found. Lombardi would be killed. And after everything he was doing to her, he deserved to be protected.

"You sure you still want to sit in here and watch me?" asked the blonde man. "You probably won't have much sleeping time on the trip to Menden or Brazil—I'm betting you didn't get much on the way to Sydney, either. _Or _Aswan. God, Rukia, do shinigami-people ever sleep?" Rukia laughed and replied, "They do when they've got the time. But I've been through much worse than this, and I'll probably end up sleeping two days straight when I get back home."

"Is your guy gonna let you?" Lombardi asked with a humorous smile. Rukia rolled her eyes thinking of him, and had to bite her tongue to keep herself from laughing at what suddenly came to mind. "Actually, I have no idea what he's going to do when I get home. I'm just hoping he hasn't destroyed everything looking for me."

"From what you told me about him, I bet he destroyed everything a long time ago."

Rukia agreed. "I suppose you're right, about Hitsugaya-taichou and needing sleep. I'm going to nap a bit before I leave. If I don't get up before six-thirty, come and wake me." Lombardi grunted in acknowledgement and Rukia left the room, glancing once more at the man's hands swiftly tapping and swirling his instruments in his hands.

_'I've only got eight days, and after all this, I know he'll need one more thing…What I would give for one of Ichigo's sleeping pills…' _

Thankfully, due to such a lack of sleep, Rukia fell into a peaceful and innocent slumber almost right away.

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December 19th, 8:55 PM

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You'd think after a person was missing for a month the search for them and the investigation of their disappearance would have lessened a bit. No, it had grown to at least thrice its size. Humans who knew Rukia were notified immediately. Ichigo had transported himself to Soul Society the minute he'd heard; Uryu, Orihime, Urahara and Chad had followed soon after. The news even reached Kukaku and Ganju Shiba, who joined the search force the day it was organized. Piece by piece, the entire world was going to be swept for her—the ones searching would have it no other way. And after nearly a month, it had been determined, for absolute certain, that Kuchiki Rukia was no longer in Japan. Still the search force did not falter.

The force grew to the point that every day two hollows were pinned before their slaying, and interrogated as to the whereabouts of one Kuchiki Rukia. Was she in Hueco Mundo? Had a hollow killed or captured her? It usually took the loss of a limb or two to make a hollow talk truthfully—usually accompanied by sobs of pain—and Hitsugaya Toushirou was always the one to interrogate. Always the one to cut limbs.

Always the hollows knew nothing.

Except for this one.

The one-month anniversary of Rukia's disappearance would be on Christmas. Even some hollows, who'd heard of the business livening up Soul Society, knew this. Those who celebrated it in Soul Society, the Christmassy atmosphere dimmed and saddened, and those who didn't celebrate had a reason not to. Hitsugaya had been tense, cold-eyed, sharp-tongued and bent on destruction the minute he had let himself into Rukia's room that one morning and found her gone with blood on the floor and harsh nail markings on the floor and wall. It was natural to feel sad or angry when one's soul mate was gone out of nowhere. For Hitsugaya, for everyone, the loss of Rukia, the loss of her for nearly a month was…heart-wrenching and distraught, for lack of better words.

The person who had meant the most to Hitsugaya, the one he planned to spend the rest of his days with, the one he'd been madly—_madly—_in love with for years, had been stolen. He would _murder _the culprit, he would torture them for days and days. He wound soak their hands in liquid metal, rip out their fingernails, drive his thumbs into their eyes, cut off their limbs and rub pure salt onto the stumps.

They would wish for the devil himself to come and take them to hell. _The devil would be a long time coming!_

No one came near or touched his beautiful rabbit without his permission. To steal his rabbit, to steal away Rukia, who was Hitsugaya's alone, was _fucking unforgivable. _

Thinking in this manner every day, Captain Hitsugaya found no peace, not a moment of stress-relief, of un-bunched muscles or tranquil breathing, in all the days the search had been going on. Hinamori tried so very hard to calm him, for his own well-being, and bless her for trying, but nothing could. Nothing but the feel of Rukia safe next to him ever would.

So when a hollow was found who actually knew something, Hitsugaya's appearance went even more tense and cold—yes, you fools, that was possible.

This hollow was nameless, but due to the fact that it looked like a brown, oversized komodo dragon, many shinigami had been calling it Fafnir, after a dragon of old European legend. Fafnir's eyes numbered five: two on each side of the head and one in the middle of his short, almost human-like tongue. The rest of Fafnir's features were nothing special; in all aspects he resembled some huge pet lizard. Hitsugaya had his sword hovering an inch above the eye on the tongue. His heel was pressed harshly on the tongue, forcing it to stretch out of the mouth and be pressed hard onto the rocky ground. This kept the eye constantly wide with pain and fear, the other four were closed tight, frightened.

"Yes, yes! I hear about Kuchiki girl! My friend, he see her!"

That was what had gotten the team's attention. Gathered here was Hitsugaya-taichou, Inoue Orihime, Ishida Uryu, Urahara Kisuke, and Shihoin Yoruichi. Rukia's adoptive brother, Byakuya, as well as Hinamori and Yachiru were listening in on the conversation through a communicator Urahara wore on his waist.

Hitsugaya's blade hovered above the tongue-eye. Fafnir whimpered. His back-left leg and front-left arm had already been cut off. "I swear! You look in my soul, you see no lie!" the hollow was crying. "My friend see her himself, he tell me much detail! Spare, spare, no kill!"

"Continue," Hitsugaya commanded, and when Fafnir's tongue-eye dared move from the blade to its wielder, it shivered at the look. Pure ice. The fleshy eyelid closed over the tongue-eye and the hollow whimpered louder, but tried to go on: "My friend, Vatican, he in Canada, two hours ago! One hour, maybe! He eat two souls in town, Abbotsford, lots mountains and woods nearby! He know Kuchiki girl! He see her in woods by Abbotsford, he know her from slay other hollow friends. He see her, she not have slaying-sword. She carry little bag in hand, she look scared. Is hiding behind tree, looking at town. Is quiet, no talk."

Fafnir waited for something, some incentive to get the hell out of here or continue with his torture. Hitsugaya's sword moved an inch closer to the tongue on his eye and he tried to pull the tongue back in instinctively. Hitsugaya's foot on the tongue prevented that, and, moaning in fright and pain, the four eyes on his head rolled back and showed nothing but white. Even with that, the hollow went on.

"I know no more, I know no more! Vatican tell this to me, he stay in Abbotsford with other friends, I come here to China seashore to eat souls! I want new taste. I hungry for new taste…I want…" For several moments Fafnir gained a hungry look in his five eyes, and seemed to forget he was surrounded by such powerful individuals. The hollow laughed. "That all I know! You let me go, white-hair! You let me go and I eat you! You die, you burn in hell, ha-hahaha—_Aaugh!_" The captain's sword swiftly cut off the hollow's tongue, and let the creature scream and bleed for half a minute before slamming Hyorinmaru onto the thing's mask.

Ichigo was prompted to speak, but found his silent worry and anger wouldn't let him. No, like everyone else, he walked away from the hollow's evaporating form and into the traditional sliding doors that had appeared in the air before them. From this spot on a lonely beach on the edges of China, the party searching for Kuchiki Rukia would head via shinigami transportation to the Canadian town of Abbotsford.

Ichigo's hand was clenched so tightly around Zangetsu that the handle felt close to cracking and Hitsugaya's hand was shivering as it held Hyorinmaru.

666

December 19th, 10:32 PM

666

Why?

Why, why? _Why _did such a thing happen now?

_Why _did so many hollows have to come stalking her now, when her work with Lombardi was finally finished, when she had been on her way home to Karakura Town, where she would easily be noticed by her friends? Why did there have to be over forty of them? Why couldn't she have something to fight the damn monsters with?

Well, for one thing, taking her Zanpakuto with her would screw her plan for good. If you wanted to make it look like you were kidnapped, you don't take your weapon with you, thusly making it look like you left on your own! She hadn't taken anything with her when she'd left Soul Society, apart from the clothes on her back and a steely determination. She had nothing; when she needed food or water the money spent buying it was Lombardi's and she had borrowed it from him. And so, she had no weapons to defend herself with, not even a lousy knife.

What's that, you say? Kido spells? Or just average hand-to-hand combat? Why that's a brilliant idea! Why don't you tell that to Rukia, who hasn't slept or stopped moving in nearly five days and who feels so very exhausted and terrified she feels like curling up and dying right this moment?

To this, why don't we add the fact that her miraculous gigai was failing? The fact that whenever an average human looked at her, they would see her true body and not the brunette teen disguise?

What about the fact that all the things she'd fetched for Lombardi had finally amounted to something, and she was holding that something in a little velvet bag _right in her hand? _

How about the fact that if this didn't get back to Soul Society, everything she'd worked for would be ruined, which would _suck _very much?

With all this dismal stuff going on, you may wonder how in the hell Rukia got to Canada when, last time we saw her about five days ago, was in Prague, the Czech Republic? You intelligent fellows out there—bless you all—may realize that Rukia cannot transport herself to any of these places by shinigami means, for fear of being detected and found. No, she must use average human transportation. She must sneak rides on trains and streetcars, and hike through mountains and dense woodland and cross oceans on ships like a regular person would, and these things take must time and energy.

Well, it all happened when she was leaving Lombardi's underground hideaway under the streets of Prague. To have a bit of fun, and to be safe as well, Lombardi had suggested she climb up one of the air vents. They'd had a laugh, shook hands and Rukia had paid her last debt to Lombardi. What, you think Lombardi did all that work for Rukia for nothing? No, fool, he required payment, and while Rukia had paid most of that before fetching the first item they'd needed, the last bit needed paying now.

Lombardi had seen a spirit when he was twenty-nine, a tall woman of dark skin and violet hair who was the most beautiful he'd ever seen. She was sitting on a park bench outside of Prague, watching the tourists and residents of the city who could not see her. Lombardi had sat on the bench and locked eyes with her. They were more gold than gold metal, Lombardi insisted, and had the woman not evaporated into nothing moments later he would have asked her name. But he never did, and he never forgot her, and Lombardi wished to know if Rukia knew any such woman in Soul Society, and if so, could he see her?

The petite shinigami, knowing exactly who he was talking about, assured Lombardi that the woman was just fine. Her name was Yoruichi, and she would arrange for him to see Yoruichi at some point in time, she swore on her life. After what he'd done for her, she owed this to him. She would make Yoruichi look that man in the eyes at least once more before he died; it would make him so very happy and he would know for sure that Rukia was a girl of her word.

Well, after that, she'd climbed up the vent and found herself crawling out of a hole on the slope of a grassy hills before a wide river. Immediately she thought, "rabbit hole," and could just imagine Hitsugaya's face if he were here to see her literally coming out of the rabbit hole. She stood up, smiled at the small velvet bag in her hands, as it held the fruition of all her plans and hard work and she was holding it right there. Well, as she was looking at the bag, she noticed beyond it a little dark thing on the other side of the river, and when she looked up she found it was a hollow.

The thing looked like a giant black ball supported by a dozen skinny spider legs, and a huge white mask took up a large amount of space on the front of the "ball." Having not slept in days, Rukia prepared to run, and had wondered if her lightning-like speed would still be with her after such a lack of sleep. But out of nowhere the hollow was in her face and everything around them turned violet-colored and swirled like mixing paint all around them. They were in another dimension, the air tasted of rotten mushrooms and the upward rush of wind told Rukia that they were falling.

Then they were on the ground again, teleported apparently, to a completely different place, a huge, hilly field surrounded by a great forest. The hollow magically poofed away and appeared again, about twenty feet farther away from her. The sudden feeling of ground beneath her feet made Rukia lurch and drop her velvet bag. She staggered and fumbled almost to her knees to catch the thing before it hit the ground, and the hollow in front of her laughed at her antics. The hollow laughed at her, and somehow the laughing rose to a howl that was so deafening Rukia had to cover her ears at the volume, and swore she felt blood leaking out her left ear.

She opened her eyes again and saw that the spider-like hollow had called several dozen friends to its side, each of a different nightmarish shape and each gazing hungrily at her as though she were the next meal. She felt the intensity of their growls in the air and knew that they were moments away from giving chase. She clutched the velvet bag in her left hand and hoped again the speed that had saved her so many times wouldn't fail here. She turned around and ran for the woods surrounding this huge field, hoping nature would help hide her.

All at the same time, the hollows bounded forward and gave chase. And so they had been chasing her for over two hours and so she'd been feeling close to collapse for just that long.

And Rukia had only the slightest clue where she was, due to a sign she'd seen near a highway she'd crossed: "Welcome to Abbotsford!"

This name sounded American or English, but that didn't tell her much—she was in America or Great Britain? Oh, how helpful!—and she had only hours before December 19th winked away and the twentieth day of the month was born. She had no way of getting back to Soul Society or even Japan, and she was being chased by a pack of hollows bent on eating her. At the same time she had to try to steer the hollows away from the town of Abbotsford, as a matter of "It's just not nice to lead a bunch of soul-eating monsters into an innocent and unsuspecting town, you know?" and other such ethics.

To help lighten the situation—she'd laughed at herself when she said this, but still tried to tell herself it did some psychological help—she'd named a few of the hollows after their characteristics. For example, the first hollow she'd seen, that looked like a giant ball supported by skinny legs, was Arachnia, a play on "arachnid," and the hollow that she'd seen most recently was Rufus, because it was about as smart as a sack of rocks and deserved a name that sounded just the same.

Petite, little Rukia could sense nine of them coming close. She was sitting against the trunk of a fir tree, and a large berry bush was at her left, helping to hide her. But the hollows seemed to be coming from the right and she didn't dare turn to look; she knew they were within sight range. If there was a God, then they'd stalk past Rukia and not know they'd missed her. She could smell the disgusting, rotten-fish breath of Gar, a hollow that truly did look like a ferocious, long-nosed fish with legs, and breath to match.

"I smell you, girl! I know you are here!" Gar said in a sick attempt at a tender voice. "Come out, make your death easy! I eat very quick, you will feel no pain, little one!"

And now she was "little one." As though Hitsugaya calling her a rabbit wasn't enough. Oh, if she had Shirayuki, that hollow would be—be—oh shit, he was coming closer.

"I smell you behind that berry bush, girl. Come out and I promise death shall come quick as lightning." Rukia stayed still and clutched her velvet bag protectively. No brainless moron would walk defenseless in front of a hollow, much less her. She wondered curiously if she would die for the little thing in this bag. _'__…Just m__aybe__…__' _It certainly meant a lot to her, just as much as the dragon pendant Hitsugaya had given her. She wore that all the time, even now.

Gar's scaly hand came down and slashed off the top of the tree trunk. The edge of his fingers had narrowly missed her head. She'd nearly been decapitated. Gar looked over the spiky tree trunk-stump at her, smiling underneath his mask. Several other hollows hissed in excitement. "I see you, little one!" In response Rukia dashed away farther into the woods, farther into the wilderness. Gar raised his head and roared, an ominous sound that went farther than Rukia could run, a sound that echoed everywhere around her. God, her arms hurt so much and her eyelids were so heavy…

And then Harvester's head popped out from a grove of trees on her left. Harvester was a human-sized hollow who looked like a weasel with a gigantic scythe for a tail, and its mask did not look like a mask but a true skull. So when the monster's skeletal head popped out of nowhere and it opened its jaws, for a minute it seemed she was going to run straight into its mouth, and Rukia foresaw her own death.

But another hollow she hadn't yet named jumped out of the wood from her right and plowed into Harvester, screaming and waving its six tails. The hollow seemed to be trying to push Harvester down and at the same time attack Rukia. As it was sailing through the air, its front paws slammed down onto Harvester and its tails pointed towards Rukia.

She sidestepped at just the right moment to avoid the needles that shot from its tailtip, but another hollow was suddenly at her feet, an absurdly fat serpent, it slammed the side of its head into Rukia's gut. _CRACK. _And Rukia suddenly remembered the hollow from months ago, Mammothmouth Two. Hitsugaya had saved her from death by that hollow's fangs. And just before he had come, Rukia had had some kind of cracked or bent rib that continuously poked at her organs, forcing her to cough up blood with every breath. Unohana-taichou had healed that wound herself.

This serpent hollow had undone that work. The rib had cracked again. Rukia could feel the blood beginning to choke her breaths. She could feel the rib piercing something inside her. She was bleeding internally. Again.

Loch Ness—she didn't even know why she was still naming hollows while she was possibly dying—seemed to know exactly what injury it had caused, and raised its lips in a smile. Suddenly furious at the thing, she aimed a kick at the monster's head, and it landed right on its forehead, right on its mask. Loch Ness cried out, even shed a tear at the agony, and whipped Rukia away with its huge tail before evaporating. Her body slammed into another tree and sent cracks spider-webbing up and down the trunk.

Her eyes were closed in pain, but she could hear and feel the hollows coming closer. Harvester's ugly screaming drowned out most of the other sounds; she could hear the heavy footsteps Geyser and Red-Thirteen. Drawing up her legs, her tired, tired legs, Rukia pushed off from the tree trunk and flew several feet in the air before landing on Red-Thirteen's back. The red-eyed werewolf hollow bellowed and reared up, trying to throw her off, but our lithe shinigami had already jumped off the monster and was running again.

_She was so damn tired…Her rib hurt so much…every exhale brought out another mouthful of blood! She was choking! _

Her legs had been close to giving out an hour ago. The feeling had never left or intensified, it just sat there, knowing how much damage it was doing and mocking her. Her clothes were torn and Loch Ness' strike had, as well as causing internal bleeding, made some kind of cut that was soaking her clothes in blood as well. Twin cuts on her forehead, made by being thrown into the tree, dribbled blood annoyingly into her eye, soaking everything on her left in red. She still held the velvet bag as though in it was the cure for all disease.

Rukia could hear the hollows coming for her again. She heard a tree fall to the ground and heard the monsters screaming and howling for her. She needed sleep. Another tree fell to the ground, went up in flames. Red-Thirteen shouted out curses. She was choking on the blood. Something exploded. A human was shouting now. Jackal-ass and Savashus together cried out, "Come for death! Come for death!" The dark clouds and the moonless night made nothing seem any better.

"—_wl, Zabimaru!" _

The ground shook and Savashus made a groaning sound that carried for miles on the wind.

_'Zabimaru? Renji?' _

What…had just happened?

'_Renji is here!' _Rukia's heart soared and flipped and jumped for joy. _'I may just kiss that man when I see him—Renji, you have no idea what…!' _Then Harvester appeared before her, seeming to come from thin air. Instinctively she raised her left foot and prepared to kick the hollow between the eyes, but moving her body in such a way pushed her broken rib bone farther into her body.

"Geghh!" the girl bubbled, and felt the blood dribbling on her chin. Harvester smiled, frowned, and dashed away through the trees, letting her foot land on nothing but the forest grass. She staggered, caught herself on her one hand and used the other to hold the velvet bag, appeared to be doing some foolish and awkward bow.

Not knowing what else to do, not having the energy to do anything else, Rukia crawled up against a tree, spat out one particularly large mouthful of blood, and sat against the trunk, appearing to relax. On the inside, she was as sharp as a knife in that she still never stopped listening and sensing about for hollows. She knew how relaxed and sleepy—and wounded—she must look, but she would never stop listening for the danger. If she must, no matter what, she would jump up and run again, and her agility _better _not fail her this time and…she was tired.

Just because Rukia was listening for hollows didn't mean she was aware of the time. She was assuming it was ten or eleven o' clock at night…maybe Renji would know once he found here…it was alright to be found now…she'd finished her work, she had it in this little velvet thing, and if Renji took her back to Soul Society that would be just _wonderful…_

And so Kuchiki Rukia drifted into half-sleep.

And so when Hitsugaya Toushirou suddenly appeared as fast as shunpo could take him, following his rabbit's trembling, frightened reiatsu, she didn't really know it was him. No, she assumed it was Renji. She had no idea that Renji, Hitsugaya, Orihime and Yoruichi were all here in this Canadian wilderness together looking for her, under the directions of Vatican, a hollow they'd captured and interrogated not too long ago. She didn't know that Harvester and Savashus and Gar had all been slain, and Hitsugaya's party had split up in the woods to look for her. When Hitsugaya slammed Hyorinmaru into the ground and practically fell upon her and buried his face into her hair and said things she was too dazed to understand, Rukia assumed it was Renji, and smiled a bit, but made no sound.

Rukia's clothes were torn and bloody around the stomach, blood dribbled down her chin and into her eye, and her breathing was shallow and choked, and so to Hitsugaya she appeared near dying. He was holding her, planning to never let go again, shaking her, calling, "Rukia…Rukia! Rukia!"

Rukia clutched the velvet bag so tightly that no hand could have possibly unwound her fingers from it, assured herself no one would be able to take it from her, and fell asleep.

666

December 20th, 4:45 PM

666

Was the velvet bag still in her hand? Yes. Tight as ever. No one had taken out the small item inside. Good…

Kuchiki Rukia was quite sure this was _the _most comfortable and warm bed she had ever slept in. Whenever she wanted to move her body, it adjusted itself just the right away as though it knew what position she wanted all parts of her body to be in. After nearly five sleepless days and nights, she found this was a perfect substitute for the word "heaven." She'd been awake for nearly ten minutes, though she hadn't opened her eyes yet. If she did, she felt sure that she'd see her Nii-sama or Hitsugaya or Ichigo and they would pester her with questions and she likely wouldn't get to sleep again for many more hours. (She knew she had plenty to answer, and she would eventually, but not here when she felt so very warm and lazy and content.)

Then she felt some part of the bed—an armrest, perhaps?—move over her stomach and set itself there. She contentedly stretched her arm over said armrest, keeping the one with the velvet bag close to her body. Another armrest appeared to—no, this wasn't an armrest, that felt quite like a person's hand. Whatever this new thing was, it was stroking the side of her head. She was pondering whether or not to lean into it, when the bed vibrated with some kind of…was that a _purr? _

She opened one dark eye. She didn't recognize the walls or the room itself and assumed she was in a hospital or quarters of some sort of the 4th Division. Medical equipment was stacked in one corner next to a window that offered a spectacular view of the Sokyoku. There was a door with a technical set of locks on it near that, and besides the door, the window and the equipment, there was really nothing special about the place.

She saw her own small feet laying on a large, white bed, and on each side of them…another set of legs? She looked down at what she had thought was an armrest, and found her hand was outstretched over another person's arm, and not at all an armrest. She recognized the clothing immediately, but it was the Zanpakuto sitting on the nightstand by the bedside that really told her who she was laying on here.

She wasn't even laying on the bed. She was laying on Hitsugaya, who was in turn sitting up on the bed. Now that she understood, she felt his chin was sitting atop her head and he had her in a very secure grip that she berated herself for not recognizing before. And yes, she realized, the bed was vibrating because Hitsugaya was purring.

She closed her eyes again and took the deep breaths one takes when asleep, hiding the fact that she was awake. She wanted a little more sleep before he started asking her a dozen questions about what the hell she'd been doing in the past month. It was too late; he knew she wasn't asleep.

She didn't know how he would act when she finally returned. His voiced sounded just as possessive and striking as the last time she'd heard it. "You are in _such _trouble, rabbit."

Automatically she assumed they'd figured out that she had run away and not been kidnapped and had worried them sick for weeks for no reason. Of course Hitsugaya would volunteer to punish her for it, the tone of his voice just screamed that. Before he got into any such business, she prepared to redeem herself.

"I had a very good reason," she said flatly, knowing how foolish that must sound after all the trouble everyone must have gone through for her.

"Tell me." he said, taking her velvet bag-less hand and raising it over her head. He licked the index finger and put it in his mouth—Rukia congratulated herself; she didn't shiver!—and was apparently waiting for her to explain.

"This will be long," she warned. He purred loudly and drew her body closer to his. Rolling her eyes at his typical behavior, she began, "The last time I visited Ichigo, I read an old newspaper in his father's clinic. It talked about a father in Venice, months and months ago, who had murdered his wife and three nearby gang members and ran away. He left his two young sons in the house alone. I recognized his picture from a more rcent paper. Before he'd killed anyone, he'd been a famous jeweler. He was capable of making the finest things you could imagine. His name was Lombardi, Lukas was his first name. I left last month to look for him." The white-haired dragon who was acting as her couch tensed and she could just barely hear him beginning to growl. She should have known; she just said outright that she was looking for a man.

"Stop that—I left because I wanted him to make me something, and he was the only one who possibly could!" She could feel the captain's eyes staring down disbelievingly at her, so continued. "He was last seen on Romania's northern border, maybe seven weeks ago. I left that night—"

"Explain that. How you left without anyone knowing. There were traces of human reiatsu in your room, blood and torn wallpaper."

_'So they _did _think I was kidnapped…then why did he say before that I was 'in trouble'?'_But she complied.

"I did that myself to make it look like humans came in and took me. I sampled three humans from Karakura Town, Chad, Uryu and Inoue-san. I've learned enough from Urahara-san to be able to capture a piece of reiatsu, mask it to look like a completely different person's, and spill it, so to say, anywhere I want. I can make it look like three people have been here when they really haven't. I made those reiatsu trails myself and made sure they led to nothing but dead ends. And of course I masked my own. There was nothing that could lead anyone to me, and I created my own gigai to hide my true appearance. A regular human looking at me would not see my true body, but a person who looked nothing like me."

Rukia wondered if talking about her being missing was troubling him; he moved her head with his free hand more securely under her chin as though making sure she couldn't get away again. Trying not to smile, Rukia said, "It took two days to find Lombardi. The first thing he did was comment on my hair. He could see through my gigai, he could see _spirits._ I walked through a few walls, showed him I truly was a spirit, and told him I wanted him to make something for me. For payment, he demanded that I take him to a safe place where he could hide from the law. So I found him a place in Prague and he made it his new home."

Hitsugaya was silent and his grip on her didn't loosen a bit. "You see, he was framed for the murders. Lombardi murdered his wife to save his sons. He was under the blackmail of a gang, and the only way to save them was to kill his wife. For revenge, he killed three of the gang members who had watched him do it, and left the town. He planned to support himself by making jewelry underground—for the black market, I think he said. Once I went to Venice to assure him his sons had been adopted together and were doing just fine, I told him exactly what I wanted from him, and he gave me a list of things to get. He didn't have all the materials, and needed a lot of things."

She slowly raised her left hand, the hand that held the tiny velvet bag, and she felt the movement of Hitsugaya's chin as he looked at it. "He needed mushrooms from Brazil, and don't ask me how he knew there was a diamond on the roof of the Sydney Opera House, and he needed stainless steel from a flea market in Vancouver, and an opal found only in Aswan…I went all over the world to get all kinds of things, by foot, by train, by ship, and I brought them to Lombardi in Prague and he made them into exactly what I wanted."

"This," she said, moving the bag closer to him, "is your birthday present, Toushirou."

"Is it the twentieth?" She asked not a second later. She felt him nod. Rukia sighed joyfully at his answer and she guessed he could _feel _her relief and happiness resonating. "Good. I thought I would be late." Hitsugaya stared at the black, fuzzy bag in her hand, moved her finger out of his mouth, and took the bag in his hand.

Birthdays weren't nearly as big a deal in Soul Society as in the human world. A good friend would get you some candy or a little toy, nothing particularly special or huge. Rukia had gone all over the world, made herself appear kidnapped and had lost probably days of sleep just to get her possessive and playful lover a birthday present.

He loosened the grip he had on her with his arms—of course, he kept his legs locked with hers, assuring himself she couldn't leave him again—and pulled the red drawstring holding the bag closed. He reached in, touched the little thing inside, and drew it out by the silver, smooth chain holding it.

It was a necklace. The charm, not any larger than Hitsugaya's thumb, was fashioned into a white rabbit. It's tiny feet were encased in gold-painted slippers, and it had shining black opals for eyes. One of its ears pointed upward, and the other was down, and both were edged in black and studded with little gold dots like piercings. The rabbit's tail was a circular diamond, and six sapphires were studded onto a little black harness of sorts on its back. What was truly amazing was that all these gems didn't make the rabbit one gigantic, blinding light reflector; they shone just enough to be beautiful.

(AN: See bottom of chapter for directions to an online picture of the necklace.)

As his head was atop hers and she was thusly in front of him, Rukia couldn't see his facial expression, his reaction to this beautiful thing. She thought about adding a comment something like, "If you don't show some sort of gratitude for everything I've done, I'm going to punch you right here and now," but instead opted for something else.

"Shirayuki is actually a butterfly, a silver butterfly." she said slowly. "But I thought this shape would mean more to you…"

She suspected he would say thank you, or _something, _but he didn't say a word for almost an entire minute. When he'd apparently had a good eyeful of the rabbit necklace, he dropped it gently back into the bag and held it in his hand. Then he lifted Rukia, an easy feat as she was so small, and turned her around to face him. In the short time she was being moved, she pondered what Hitsugaya's face would look like once she saw it. Mildly thankful? Extremely thankful? Confused? When he plopped her down unceremoniously, she saw it.

It was the most stunning mix of affection and hunger she'd ever seen. With teal eyes that forced her own not to look away, he raised his right hand and set it on the back of her head. He closed his eyes lazily and bent forward, licking her lips—Rukia jumped a bit and tried to move away, and of course was not allowed. The following kiss ensued with seductive purring on his side, speechlessness on Rukia's. Rukia noticed that his tongue seemed unusually forceful this time; she was so busy noticing this, she almost didn't notice Hitsugaya setting the velvet bag into her hand. She knew exactly what he wanted her to do.

She fumbled with the bag's drawstring but drew out the intricate rabbit necklace as swiftly as she could. Her hands struggled with the little lock that kept the chain in a loop and not a long string, but succeeded in undoing it and putting it around Hitsugaya's neck. She let the little metal piece go, locking the necklace onto his neck, and let it free from her hands. He was wearing it now.

Twice Hitsugaya stopped the kiss to give them both a chance to catch their breath, and to lick his innocent little rabbit, for he was so pleased at his gift he wished he could never stop ravishing her. But someone would come in soon to check if Rukia was awake after her fifteen-hour sleep, if the injuries that Unohana-taichou had healed were still alright, if Hitsugaya had decided to kiss her awake as the squealing girls outside the compound hoped.

Eventually, the captain seemed finished, and settled for moving her as close to his body as possible, the only place he was sure she was safe, and nuzzling himself into her swan neck. For one of the first times Hitsugaya could remember, Rukia didn't resist…very much.

When Yumichika cracked the door and saw them sitting together, Hitsugaya's eyes half-closed and relaxed and happy for the first time in nearly a month, he resisted the urge to jump for joy and went directly outside to tell the group of girls hiding in the bushes what he'd seen. Two-thirds of them had screamed and cheered in joy and one-third had fainted on the spot.

The next snowy day around noon, Rukia had been released from the 4th Division's hospital. Hitsugaya informed her in a half-playful voice then that, yesterday when he'd said she was in trouble, he'd meant it. Kidnapped or runaway, Rukia had worried him sick and left him alone and distraught for days on end. He said he would give her five seconds, and just before the small shinigami took off like a rocket, he murmured to her, "Run, rabbit."

So Rukia spent the rest of the day being chased around Seireitei by Hitsugaya.

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END OF TWO-SHOT

_INSTRUCTIONS TO SEE THE RABBIT NECKLACE_: Go to bunny bunch boutique dot comm. Take out spaces and write it correctly, you know the drill. Click on the little icon that says "jewelry." The second item on that long list, that beautiful and intricately jewel-studded rabbit, is what Rukia spent a month gathering the materials for, and gave to Hitsugaya. Note that in the site, it's a pin, but in the story it's a necklace.

Wow, that was even more fun to write than I thought it would be. If there's something about Rukia's story that you don't understand, then PM me or ask in your review and I will tell you. Also, I have no freaking clue if Brazilian mushrooms or any of the stuff Lombardi used can actually be used to make jewelry. We all know someone in our lives who can do crazy things. Maybe using mushrooms to make paint to paint a necklace charm is Lombardi's crazy talent.

The title, if you were wondering, is a reference to a little paragraph in Chapter 1 in which we find out Hitsugaya hates when Rukia keeps secrets from him and will often poke his nose into her business to make sure she isn't hiding any. Well, Rukia had been planning for weeks to find Lukas Lombardi and have him make a birthday present for Hitsugaya, hiding it from said captain all along. Well, in Chapter Two she finally reveals the secret: that she disappeared for a month just to get him a gift, and thusly is is a secret no longer.

Oh, I also plan to make an epilogue to this story, something that will be purely "fun," a random little plot mixed with a whole bunch of HitsugayaRukia chicken soup/fluff for the soul. I hope you enjoyed reading this, I had a hella time writing it. Happy President's Day, belated Valentine's Day or whatever holiday or random day you wish.

Join the HitsuRuki army. You know you want to.

Ta…Storm


	3. She Who Was Chased

I started writing this third chapter towards the end of February, when I had a few snow days, but I got back into my usual Naruto swing, and now that inspiration for this has randomly struck, I'm finishing it up now, the beginning-middle-ish of May. This chapter includes a lot of chasing, running, playing sorts of themes, which I do love in possessive-anime-pairing relationships. Please do enjoy.

Well, here it is: my epilogue, my pointless-except-for-fluff-and-fun chapter. Have a good laugh and a squee if you're a fangirl.

**Reviews: **

**BasicallyAnIdiot: **I could have sworn I put that in there…well, it's fixed now. I'm glad you took the time to go and look at the picture, it means a lot for me and for the story.

**Cutegoth: **It may just get cooler in this episode.

**SweetScrifice: **Lots of times when I was writing, I couldn't stop smiling either. Strange. I do agree, it would have made a good many-chapter story but I don't think I could balance that with all my Naruto stories so one-and-two-shots are easiest. And about the lemon…I can't write make myself write those. At all. I can, however, since Hitsugaya _is _just that naughty, leave an implication that a lemon took place…

**CrazyOnDisplay: **Hitsu-possessiveness was not gold, ma'am. It was platinum. Better than gold. I will most definitely consider making more of this couple, in fact, I don't think I could consider _not _making more for this couple. I'm sure I'll think of something new for a one-shot soon enough.

**BlackBelt: (**Once more, review from favorite author. Hells yeah.) Aw, how flattering. Said flattering comments will help fuel me when I do write more HitsuRuki, cause it's doubtless that I will. Detail is what I live for in my writing, so always expect and enjoy that.

**Iana Sabelle: **Don't melt, woman! You can't read the epilogue if you're melted! More HitsuRuki works from me shall be coming in the near future, once this is posted…

**Honey-vanilla11: **I shall keep it up with everything I have—epilogue, COMMENCE.

**jHeyTTernallie: **Finally, someone comments on the surprise of Rukia's work! I was waiting for someone to say something like that, "Oh, wow, she did all that just to get him a gift, aww!"

**aizi: **"_He is a perv, but I'm sure she wouldn't have it any other way."_ Exactly, exactly.

**Jadejr1212: **Perhaps I can make him just as hot this chapter.

**White tiger: **It's not over quite yet, and any other HitsuRuki one-or-two-shots I do will be following the events of this universe, so it's not gonna be over till I lose interest in HitsuRuki.

**DarkSmile: **Adorable? Don't think anyone' said that yet (I am surprised!) so thank you much.

**Rinael11: **Never thought a "pervy" Hitsugaya would be admirable. But I s'pose he is. Update did not come ASAP since I was watching Bleach for half a day but this is pretty damn fast compared to a lot of other authors.

Epilogue Commence.

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February 20th, 1:26 AM (very late at night)

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Wasn't it strange, that when one had a very happy day at work or at home or anywhere, they found themselves plagued by frightening dreams that same night? Rukia would have pondered this for a long time, she being her thoughtful self, if she were awake. But she wasn't. She lay on her comfortable bed in her room in the Kuchiki manor. It was late at night, and she'd spent the day having fun watching hilarious children's movies with Inoue Orihime.

The girl had an infatuation with an American company called "Disney" and many animated films they made. Rukia and Orihime (and even Kon) had watched The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, and 101 Dalmatians, all in a row. It had been a pleasant afternoon, filled with movies, snacks—Rukia found she _loved _popcorn—and laughs.

Quite odd, then, that Rukia was having a nightmare.

Rukia often found that her nightmares and even good dreams were of absurd and random things, leaving her to think quietly to herself about them for the rest of the day. Her most recent good dream had shown two old men driving a hot air balloon that used an inflatable elephant, that was tied to the basket and ran through the sky like Santa's reindeer, instead of an actual balloon.

Many people taunted the old men for using the elephant and not an actual balloon, but cheered for them when the men completed a journey around the globe. Rukia could remember nothing of this dream that connected to her real life.

Her most recent nightmare featured a terminally sick girl—in the unexplainable way that dreamers know things, Rukia knew this girl had six weeks to live—running over a bridge over a quiet river in the middle of a forest. The girl dove into the river and hid under the bridge so that the giant bear chasing her would hopefully not see her.

The bear had somehow seen through the bridge's wooden planks and smashed its paw right through to fish out the girl before snapping her spine in his jaws and dragging her into the woods. Again, Rukia found nothing in this dream that connected to her real life—yet another dream that had no rhyme or reason.

This nightmare, the one petite Rukia was having now, was again absurd and illogical. There were two young brothers playing on a playground in which they lived. The park was surrounded by a soundless black fog that obscured everything from sight beyond the park's boundaries. The eldest looked about twelve, and Rukia knew his name was River, and the younger, perhaps eight or nine, was Kid. The two had been alone for as long as they could remember, and named themselves. They played all the time on their playground, ignorant of the ominous blackness around them. Even at that not-very-frightening point in the dream, in the waking world, our dreaming shinigami shivered.

For no reason at all, a baby human appeared on their playground one day, and was named Place by the two brothers. A blue praying mantis came out of the blackness a few days later onto the playground, demanding to eat Place for his midmorning meal. The brothers refused, but after the mantis chewed off River's arm, Kid handed over the infant which was swallowed whole. The mantis bid them good day and left, and River and Kid went on playing on their playground, ignoring always River's bleeding stump of an arm.

At that point she awoke. Rukia could never remember waking up from a dream by suddenly and dramatically sitting up in bed as she often saw on the human world television shows, but this time, she awoke with her eyes shooting open in surprise. She slept usually facing the bare, blue-painted wall that her bed was set against, and that was the case this time. This was mostly because, under the bed, almost against the wall, she kept a little finger-sized, fluffy Chappy figure.

When she awoke from nightmares late at night it was nice to reach down and squeeze the little white rabbit to reassure herself that all was well. This was one of the only secrets she had managed to keep from Hitsugaya after the eight or nine months they'd been together—the last thing she needed him to know was that she, sort of, slept with a stuffed animal. She was just beyond a hundred and twenty-five years old, and sleeping with stuffed animals was just _beyond _childish. So Rukia slept with her stuffed animal in secret.

Come to think of it—now that she was going to be kept awake for awhile by the nightmare, she may as well spend time thinking—how old exactly was Hitsugaya? She couldn't remember ever asking him. _'I'm older than him, I guarantee,' _she thought, and didn't know why she laughed at that.

Even though her last thought was amusing, Rukia found that out of nowhere she was remembering the nightmare again, and picturing the two brothers watching the mantis eat the infant human. She closed her eyes and sighed, moving her right hand down under the bed, searching for the squeezable and fluffy Chappy figure. She stopped the movement when her hand was inches above the wooden floor—was that a _hand _on the edge of her vision? Lord, it was!

Not liking what she knew she'd find, the shinigami turned her head and bit her tongue to keep from making a cry or jumping up. Indeed, there he was: Hitsugaya Toushirou, still in his day-to-day captain's garb, who had made himself comfortable on her little bed made for one person only, dead asleep and one arm draped over her stomach.

Almost every night he'd come in through her window after she fell asleep, and she woke up to see said captain holding her affectionately close like a child would their favorite doll. True, she'd agreed to let him do this, but waking up to Hitsugaya Toushirou almost every morning took…several weeks of getting used to. And since he hadn't been here in the last week, it was strange to suddenly have him in her bed again.

'_Thank the gods I didn't touch the figure,' _she thought with relief. _'With my luck, he would probably wake up and give me another of his rabbit comments…' _Wait, was he even really asleep? Since he was here—awfully close, by the by—she may as well test if he was truly asleep or faking it. Well, what better and more simple method was there other than asking if he was asleep?

"Hitsugaya-taichou…Toushirou…Toushirou!" she whispered his name, captain title and given name, about ten times and even poked him between the eyes, which usually got his attention no matter what he was doing, and the result was nothing. She sat up on the bed and moved away slightly, and the captain's hand slid slowly off her hip. Surely, if he was awake he'd…yup, there it was.

Slowly his hand had been sliding off her slim belly and just before it slipped all the way off and onto the bedsheets it lashed out again, wrapped around her hips and pulled her forcefully down towards him. When he opened one teal eye halfway, she realized that he really _had _been asleep; that expression was just too tired and lazy to be fake. Her moving away had somehow woke him up. "Go back to sleep, Rukia." he murmured in a tired voice that matched his expression.

"I will when you explain exactly what you're doing in my bed_."_

"Sleeping. And I don't see the problem when I've done this dozens of times before," he grinned.

"I thought you would have told me you planned to do so yesterday, so I would have a warning!"

"Why would I do that and miss your adorable shocked face?" And he closed his eye again and sighed.

"I would have really appreciated a warning the day before. I nearly had a heart attack when you were suddenly _there _after over eight days of _not _being there. If you surprise me like this again, you're going to wish you had brought your Zanpakuto with you."

"Are you thinking of punishing _me_, Rukia?" Rukia's blood froze as she realized what she'd said. Hoping not to show her nervousness, she went on, "Yes! You should have brought your whole squad with you as well. Why, I should—"

"You've got no right to do that," he said, beginning to sit up. "_You _still haven't finished being disciplined for leaving last November…and after you left the hospital as well." Our petite Rukia was immediately backed into the corner of the bed, nearly in danger of falling into the tiny crack between the bedside and the wall. Trapped, she was, between the wall and her lover who was coming closer every second and licking his lips quite happily.

If it was not obvious before, one should know that Hitsugaya didn't and would never forget that Rukia had been gone for an entire month at the end of last year. In his view, no matter how much he knew Rukia wouldn't leave him again for anything, she deserved constant reminders to never dare to do so again. Her leaving was likely the only thing in the world that scared him. One of his favorite methods of affection, as was known around Soul Society, was to pounce on Rukia and pin her down tight and secure…and go from there. Here was another example of how much he loved that method.

Not really knowing how to defend this time—he was in her bed, for crying out loud—she put out a hand onto his shoulder and stalled as quickly as she could. "Wait!" was, of course, the only word that came to mind. "You have three seconds." Hitsugaya said flatly.

"How old are you?" Oh how tactful Rukia was. Asking the question that every partially intelligent person on the planet took less than a moment to answer.

"One hundred forty-nine."

He was older than her? By nearly twenty years?! "You must be—by the time I entered the shinigami academy, you were—"

"Already there and probably halfway to graduation. Now respect you elder's wishes and come here, rabbit."

Rukia's most vulnerable spot was her neck, and, wearing nightclothes she'd borrowed from Ichigo's young, stylish sister Yuzu, it was conveniently exposed; he attacked there first. It'd been too long since he'd bitten her there, and they both knew she'd done her best to avoid him giving another love mark for almost two weeks now. She was much overdue.

Rukia made a little "yip" sound and jumped a bit when he delivered this one. Like usual, she put one hand on his stomach and one over the curve of his shoulder, the two spots she thought were best for pushing him away. This usually never succeeded, but it did have its rare moments, so she tried every time.

Hitsugaya's own hands were, one, on her back to help pull her close, and two, on the back of her head for the same purpose. It was ridiculously cute how the rabbit enjoyed everything he did to her and yet tried to stop it from happening. Once he was done with the biting, he licked the spot over and over again, which always lessened Rukia's struggles for the next few minutes.

Her left hand, pushing against his stomach, rubbed against a spot on his abs that for no reason was particularly sensitive tonight and he made a little moaning sigh like a dog happy to be having its ears rubbed. Rukia, having no idea what she was doing, continued the motion until Hitsugaya decided it was time to thank her for it.

A kiss on the jaw-line was one of Rukia's favorites, Hitsugaya knew she'd never admit, so he delivered one of these. This was also one of his own favorites, for the longer he went on with it, the more Rukia would try to resist making some sort of sound that confirmed she was enjoying it. So he gave continuous kisses along the left side of her face, one hand holding her tight around her hips and the other around her shoulders.

Once in awhile he'd look up and see her with her eyes closed, blush turning her cheeks pink, and fighting back rabbitish little mews and murmurs. Sights like these made Hitsugaya persist the loving with more vigor than before, because it was so goddamned adorable and she hadn't a clue how much it affected him, how much it urged him to continue in hope that she _wouldn't _be able to hold in those rabbitish mews.

Some five minutes later he decided he should stop for both their sakes, his because he was afraid he might go too far and face both the rabbit's wrath and her brother's in the morning, and hers because he knew she'd hate to "go too far" on accident instead of a night when both parties agreed. So for tonight he was just fine with watching her sleep until he fell into sleep as well.

If it wasn't obvious before, and it really should have been, Hitsugaya Toushirou was _madly freaking in love, _and he had been for a long time, so years ago when his heart told him to positively annihilate the many male suitors after Rukia's, he gladly obeyed. For that heart was his and his only, and now that he had it there was almost nothing that could have made him happier.

Thinking this way made our favorite captain go back to December 21st, the day Rukia had left the hospital after being recovered unconscious from Canadian wilderness. Thinking this way made him remember how it felt to chase the rabbit around Seireitei. It was not as he'd expected.

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December 21st, 12:09 PM (three months ago, roughly)

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"Don't tell me 'run, rabbit!' You can't mean that seriously!" the petite shinigami gawked. "You're telling me to run around after I've spent five days dragging my injured self around the world without sleep? Thirty seconds after I walked out the hospital doors?"

"If you don't want me to catch you, then yes," was Hitsugaya's rather cheerful reply.

"I…I really don't think I'll be much of a chase right out of the hospital." Rukia murmured. Hitsugaya would have none of this. Even with a light coating of snow on the ground, the air around them seemed to warm. "Don't talk like that, rabbit. You're the fastest little creature I've ever seen. If you _really _don't want to run—"

In the space of a second the white-haired captain appeared inches before Rukia, towering over her like always and licking his lips in preparation for a fine treat. Rukia's innocent eyes went wide and she was speeding away in the next moment.

Hitsugaya Toushirou felt the thrill bursting inside him and gave chase. Hunting his rabbit.

As he'd said, Rukia was one fast little devil and knew how to use her agility to her advantage. Hitsugaya really would have trouble catching her.

Only five or six minutes had passed, and Rukia had only sped across five dozen or so rooftops when she saw a claw of blue ice flying towards her. She dodged and the claw spiraled around the spot she'd just moved away from, wrapping around nothing but air. She almost forgot the tactic she was up against. When she turned her head to look behind her, Hitsugaya was there, waiting with open arms.

The captain nearly grasped her skinny arm but caught the black sleeve of her shinigami outfit instead. It was just enough for Rukia to get away with only a little patch of her sleeve missing. The captain's eyes widened in disbelief that he had missed her by such a little fraction. He spent a good three seconds with that expression on his face, standing stupidly on the rooftop, and it was more than enough for Rukia to run off and out of sight.

Now that he couldn't see where she was, it was not only a hunting game. It was hide-and-seek. Hitsugaya loved both these games, and loved the prize for winning even more.

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December 21st, 12:31 PM

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'_That stupid snow-dragon-ice-face little bastard! How could he make me do this kind of activity straight out of the hospital? Is he trying to put me back in there again? He could just tell Unohana-taichou to put me back in again instead of doing this!' _Rukia was mildly pissed at her lover, yes.

She'd been avoiding him for a good fifteen minutes by moving in shadowy-but-safe alleyways in Seireitei, moving in crowds and hiding her reiatsu to the best of her ability. Rukia didn't know how long it would take for her newly-recovered body to tire, and also hadn't a clue how long Hitsugaya would continue to look for her.

To keep herself safe the little shinigami had had to keep from any of her friends of her acquaintances in Seireitei, lest they take Hitsugaya's side and try to keep her from running. This was definitely not a pro but a very big con, as it meant she had very few allies in this game which she didn't want to play at all…except for…perhaps…

'_Would Nii-sama help me?' _she wondered, ducking between two huge carts of smoked fish behind a sushi shop. _'I think he would…he's allright with Hitsugaya-taichou and I being together…but wait, he also approves of Hitsugaya-taichou sneaking into my bed at night…oh, gods. He might actually not help me.' _

A breeze passed above Rukia's head. She snapped her neck up to look and was barely able to see the white flash of Hitsugaya's clothes and hair as he jumped over the rooftop above her. He'd just missed her!

'_I'll have to put it off for a while, at least…' _Rukia decided, wishing above all things that she had her Zanpakuto with her. _'Hitsugaya-taichou may give up, or I may not grow tired after all, or I may think of something else in the meantime…' _

Then a hand grasped her throat and another slammed the wall of the shop behind her, and Rukia was afraid for her life. She lifted one hand and punched instinctively, trying to injure if not kill her attacker whose identity she hoped she didn't know. But she did. The invader's other free hand caught hers just before it could make contact with his face. He somehow undid her fisted fingers and laced them into his own. Rukia tensed and tried not to make a noise as the invader kissed the edge of her knuckle.

"I can't believe I jumped right over you." Hitsugaya murmured with his eyes closed. "My rabbit is always clever. Sometimes too clever for her own good." The hand that had been loosely around Rukia's throat moved behind her head and Hitsugaya moved in closer.

Luckily, oh so luckily, Hitsugaya's other hand was still resting against the wall behind Rukia, giving her a space through which to duck under and break away. Rukia took this chance immediately and used her own free hand to push at Hitsugaya's stomach. Luck was with her again. Hitsugaya was distracted enough that he couldn't help but react sensually to his love's touch and arch a bit. In doing this movement he gave Rukia the perfect chance to get up and run away, and this she did. The rabbit was free again.

The rabbit realized that Hitsugaya had been expecting the game to be over quickly. He made a growling noise, an angry growling noise, and ran after her into the near-empty street. He hadn't expected her to be running around for more than a few minutes. God only knew how long it would take him to catch her again.

Her speed took her out of Hitsugaya's sight and reiatsu-sensing range within the minute, and this time she kept moving instead of hiding with her back against a wall. For a few minutes she decided to be daring and did what she often found herself doing: losing herself in her thoughts.

What had come to mind and was now really puzzling her was the fact that Hitsugaya had offered to let her run around and be chased. He had done this, and yet the day before he'd been so worried that Rukia might spontaneously leave again that he hardly ever left her alone. Hitsugaya had been with her every moment that she'd slept on the hospital bed, often acting as a gigantic pillow or bed or purring to lull her to sleep again. All this he had done because he'd been foolishly afraid that after her month-long escapade Rukia would run away again.

And just now, he'd made an animalistic sound that suggested he was not happy in the least to know she'd been out of his sight for more than fifteen minutes. Hitsugaya really hadn't meant for her to be running around for that long. He'd meant to catch her quickly, to assure himself that she _wasn't _going anywhere.

Now he was furious that his plan had backfired. Now he would be, Rukia assumed, genuinely angry and frightened that he didn't know where she was. (The drop in temperature around her confirmed her theory. He was definitely close now.)

So Rukia increased her speed, leaping high over the Seireitei walls and out into Rukongai, out into the place where the average souls lived. Here, both of them would be at a disadvantage: neither of them would have any allies, anyone who could offer to help or hurt either of them. Maybe with this souring his mood Hitsugaya would give up the game and Rukia could go home and read a book or sip tea in peace for a bit.

Of course, there was always that wee little chance that a winged pig would be born and fly around like some insane pigeon.

Rukia would wait it out as long as she could, but her body was already beginning to tire. Her mind wasn't tiring though, her mind and her thoughts were always awhirl like a howling tornado. And this howling-tornado-mind of Rukia's was beginning to imagine a little grey-furred rabbit sitting on the ground, and then running off like a mad creature, chased by a colossal white dragon larger than any poor rabbit could ever imagine.

Rukia hoped that if she was caught Hitsugaya would only do his usual playful nuzzling and kissing. Her mind had involuntarily thought up a hundred other things she hoped to the gods he wouldn't think to do.

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December 21st, 2:45 PM

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Not here. Not here. Not there. Where?

_Where, dammit?! _

His rabbit was gone. For two entire hours she'd been gone. No one in Rukongai had seen her. They wouldn't dare lie to him when he was searching in such a mood. None of the citizens were lying when they said they didn't know where she was. Naturally, when he described her or just mentioned her name almost every soul smiled in admiration and respect of the kind, beautiful Kuchiki and knew exactly who he meant, but of course they didn't know anything that Hitsugaya needed.

Gone. Because he'd been so stupid he couldn't control a game that he'd started himself. Because he'd caught her once and assumed she wouldn't try to leave again. Rukia had assured him again and again in her hospital room yesterday that she would never disappear again, but Hitsugaya had kept a close hold on her anyway, intending to watch her every move always. The laws of the universe dictated that the one time he wasn't touching or watching her, she would disappear and his heart would wrench itself to pieces all over again.

She'd nearly died to get him a _gift. _She'd run to the point of exhaustion, all around the world, obtaining ludicrous items to create a necklace to acknowledge the fact that yes, she _was _his rabbit and she did love him, however shy she was to say it aloud. If he and his team of comrades hadn't come in time the innocent Kuchiki girl may have died of blood loss out in the forests of Canada, or the hollows may have found her and torn her apart.

And she was gone again, because he thought game was over so easily. He didn't think his rabbit would rise up and run away again. She had promised not to run away again. And the very next day, she'd done exactly that.

In Hitsugaya's mind, this was deserving of the gravest punishment. Once he got his hands on Rukia she wouldn't leave his line of sight till the next ice age. And that was to say the least of the real punishment.

Heart racing, eyes bright with fright and fury, the dragon searched for his missing rabbit.

Around his neck was a gorgeous necklace, bearing the charm of a white rabbit wearing a black harness and tiny gold slippers.

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December 21st, 5:57 PM

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Rukia had left Rukongai around two o' clock, believing it was best to hide in the woods outside civilization, where Hitsugaya rarely went, where she often went to train, where she knew many places to hide. She hadn't seen hide nor hair of the captain since just before leaving Rukongai. She had been hiding in a cozy little shed behind some resident's house, and from a little hole in the wall she'd looked out into the street beyond and seen Hitsugaya standing regally in his captain's garb at the top of some sort of totem pole. He was absolutely motionless save for his eyes which swiveled around the street like an enraged animal. The sight had slightly unnerved Rukia.

Now she was happy to be sitting comfortably in the middle of a thick bush that had a gap of sorts in its middle. It may have been an evergreen of some sort, for it was still fully leaved even in the dead of winter. It was a sort of place where children would make a their own little fort and hide out. Only those who had been inside it before knew there was a hollow space in the middle where a person could hide and sit comfortably. Rukia (who had hidden her reiatsu, naturally) couldn't be seen, even if Hitsugaya sat right next to the huge shrub.

But the fact that she was in a safe place and hadn't seen Hitsugaya for hours was not calming to Rukia. It had been not long ago, but in the last two minutes or so she'd become aware of another presence around her. The black-haired shinigami couldn't pinpoint whose reiatsu it was she was sensing, but she knew without thinking that something _was _stalking her.

Odds were, it knew she was hiding within the bush as well. It was waiting for her to move, to try to make a break for it. But she wouldn't risk such a thing. She couldn't tell where this unknown stalker was, what direction they would attack from, or even if they were strong or weak enough to even be a threat to her. Rukia could only move her eyes around the walls and ceiling of leaves and listen.

"Come out and attack me, coward!" she wanted to cry out, but didn't dare. There was still a small chance, a pathetically miniscule chance, that the stalker wasn't sure she was there and would eventually be convinced of that fact and leave. Rukia prayed to the gods this would be the case.

'_O God who art in Heaven, and all his helpful angels, please hear me. I've never asked you for anything because I thought I could perhaps lift a little burden from your shoulders by solving my own problems…but it would be very nice if, just once, you let me know if this stranger is really a threat or not…I've been a very good person, I think, and I won't ask for anything else.' _

Rukia couldn't remember the last time she had prayed, and felt stupid doing so now. If there truly was some higher power up there watching over everything, would he or she be confused or insulted if this random black-haired shinigami asked for a favor? Was it stupid or wrong to ask the heavenly beings for something if one wasn't religious?

Rukia narrowed her eyes. She couldn't lose herself in her thoughts now! Now she had to be completely on the alert, now she had to—

One hundred degrees west!

She had no weapon but her own body and she knew it. With all the strength her little body Rukia summoned power to her right hand and prepared to crash her fist into the thing that had jumped down at her from above, from the west direction. She stood up, her head and torso crashing through the barrier of leaves, and her fist slammed into the flesh of her attacker…

"Renji?!"

Said redhead shinigami was falling onto Rukia. The hideout-bush was crushed underneath the both of them. Rukia was crushed under Renji. Her fist had hit his shoulder, broken deep into the skin. She pulled her hand away and found it was coated with blood. She'd punched _into _his body.

"Renji, what in the world were you doing? I thought I was being stalked!" she cried, trying to push him up into a sitting position. Renji found the energy to do action this himself, with one hand over his bleeding shoulder, and—laughing.

He toppled onto his side in the frost-coated grass, laughing and bleeding and Rukia sat on her rump looking quite dumbfounded. Trying to explain, Renji said, "I was…running around for exercise with Izuru and I—ke-heh-dammit-OWW!" He stopped to sit up and did a strange mixture of laughing and hissing in pain. "I remember you and me used to hide out in this bush thing sometimes and, gahh! And I checked to see if you were there because I heard…Hitsugaya-taichou was chasing you around again and I just knew you were hiding in there…and…hahah! You stabbed me, Rukia! Look at this!"

Renji appeared very amused and agonized at once. Rukia struggled to wipe away the blood around her old friend's shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! You could have called my name, you know that, right? Why did you—_assault _me like that? I didn't mean to do this to you!"

"You _stabbed _me, Rukia! _Stabbed me!" _He was full-out laughing now.

"Come on, tell me why you did that!"

"I dunno, I was…just messin' around….hahhaa! Wait'll I tell your brother about this, he might actually laugh! Think of it: Kuchiki Rukia stabs and injures best friend in play-fight…that's fucking awesome!"

The Kuchiki would have delivered a slap or uppercut to her friend's head for that comment, but was too engrossed in feeling the wind on her skin. It had grown noticeably colder. Even Renji should have been able to—"Hey, did it just get crazy cold out here?"—okay, so even Renji could feel it.

"Hitsugaya-taichou's around here." Renji murmured. He still held his shoulder, but was looking all around the trees. Most were bare and dark as winter would have them, but those that still retained leaves were now losing them. The ground, which had had only a light dusting of winter frost, grew thick with white. "I'll get in hella trouble for going against him. Hey, if you're gonna get out of here, you'd better—"

"Already on it, bye, Renji!" Rukia was calling to him from at least fifty feet away, running as fast as her legs could take her. All around her, winter was coming alive. The air grew colder. Rukia's breath formed misty vapor as she exhaled. The wind whistled by in a freezing breeze. Something was rushing behind her. She could hear its footsteps crunching on the frosty grass. It was having trouble keeping pace with her. But it wasn't far behind.

'_It's going to be allright…calm down…' _Rukia tried to convince herself that it was only Hitsugaya chasing her, hardly ten feet behind her, preparing to pounce and smother her with unnecessary kisses and caresses as he usually did. But with such coldness in the air, such ferocious reiatsu behind her, such adrenaline forcing her to run on and on, this was hard to believe.

She opened her mouth to try and tell him to stop, that he won, that the game was over, that he was going too far. But no words would leave her mouth. Rukia was afraid to turn around. She pictured some creature from her nightmares would be there, cackling and preparing to drag her into its mouth.

The nightmare-creature pounced. Rukia was slammed to the forest floor. She briefly considered laying here on her stomach, still and submissive to convey a message to the nightmare-creature that she meant no harm. Thank the gods, she didn't give that ridiculous notion another thought, and flipped over onto her back to face the creature and fight it. But it wasn't a nightmare-creature. As logic had told her, it was her ice-elemental lover, Hitsugaya. The look in his eyes, though, the horrific neon glowing in them, made her wonder briefly what the hell was wrong with him.

In the next moment Hitsugaya had one of her arms pinned in the snow and the other pulling her as close to his body as possible. Her skinny legs were caught under his more powerful ones and she was completely immobile. "What are you—"

Hitsugaya crushed their lips together, purring in a desperate tone Rukia couldn't ever recall hearing before. She tried to move back, away from the forcefulness but the ice-controller wouldn't allow her. He broke their kiss thrice to allow them to breathe but started again as they left off. After this his lips left hers and his eyes closed.

He rubbed their bodies close together in a cat-like motion and Rukia's face flushed pink at the strange action. "My rabbit…mine…" he growled. Like lightning Hitsugaya was attacking his love's always-vulnerable neck with lips and tongue and moaned blissfully at her typical reaction of trying to hold back her innocent noises. Through these actions, Rukia tried to form words that weren't tainted by stupid-sounded mews or squeaks. After a full three minutes of Hitsugaya's relentless attention, she finally was able to come up with one sentence. "Hitsugaya-taichou, stop! I'm trying to—!" She stopped to keep from making any noise when he swept his tongue slowly and mercilessly over her jaw line. She knew what she'd done wrong.

"Toushirou, Toushirou, okay?! _Toushirou, _please—please!—stop?" Hitsugaya Toushirou did not stop…exactly. He kept nuzzling his love's face and tightening his hold over her hand, but the "worst" of his attentions had stopped.

"You were…" Rukia was trying to recover her unconscious, nose-bleeding dignity. "You were chasing me like a madman. What was wrong?" Her answer was for him to press their bodies closer than they were, however impossible it looked. He lifted his head and looked her in the eye, his expression was severe, to say the least.

"You swore to never leave again." Rukia gaped at him, her mouth parted a bit. "Never leave? I believe _you _were the one who said 'run, rabbit,' about six hours ago. Wasn't it your idea to chase me around?"

Hitsugaya broke the laws of the universe by pressing himself closer still to petite Rukia. "You were even faster and smarter than I expected. I didn't think it would take this long." This was answer enough for Rukia. Her earlier theory had been right. The chasing game had happened because Hitsugaya wanted to catch Rukia and remind himself that she wasn't going anywhere ever again. Their last several kisses were meant only to assure himself that Rukia would stay with him.

The petite shinigami smiled. "Well, pardon me for doing exactly as you said." Hitsugaya nuzzled her in response, still desperate to feel that his rabbit was truly here and safe. The gentle action turned less innocent when he rubbed their bodies together in a familiar feline motion. Rukia felt every curve and muscle of his body, and surely he must have felt the same for her.

"Now finally I can punish you for it." Rukia pretended not to understand his sentence, but he elaborated anyway. "A month of leaving me distraught and thinking you were dead, and half a day of the same thing straight after you were rescued and brought home…this is beyond any mischievous prank you've ever played, my rabbit."

She tried pathetically to stall. "Are you sure you want to do that when Renji's probably close enough to hear us?" Hitsugaya's teal eyes flashed a frighteningly dark shade. "Renji?" he repeated. "Renji can't do anything, rabbit. You aren't his. You are no one's but _mine, _are you not?"

Rukia tried to move herself up to stare at him till their noses were touching, but his grip had her arms pinned in the grass and she could only go about halfway. "I didn't suggest I was Renji's anything! Now can we please go back to Seireitei? I'm thinking about sleeping for fifteen hours again after all this."

The white-haired captain kissed her forehead. "I'll let you up on the condition that…that you let me sleep in your bed whenever I please." Rukia was silent and expressionless, and it took her a good twenty seconds to finally say, "You're kidding."

"Do you want to lay here for the rest of winter?" As he said this, his lips went dangerously close to Rukia's collarbone, and with a squeak she said, "Fine, fine! Whenever you like!" Purring happily, Hitsugaya sealed their deal with a kiss. "Good. Now I can keep track of where you sneak off to at night."

And as they walked back through Rukongai to Seireitei, Hitsugaya made sure he was watching Rukia's every move. He'd be _damned _if any disappearance schemes like this ever happened again. Any big ones, anyway.

666

April 23rd, 10:03 PM (several months after the above events)

666

Today had been one of Rukia's most relaxing days…well, ever. Byakuya had graciously made sure that she wasn't assigned to any hollow-slayings or squad meetings that day and allowed her to wander Seireitei, lost in her thoughts as she often was, without interruption. Hitsugaya was gone almost the entire day on a sparring session with Ichigo and Inoue, and Rukia was left to her own business without his usual romantic interlude. She got to meditate, sample sixty-seven flavors of tea, take a nap in the highest tree branch she could find, and star-gaze when the sun went down. And her Nii-sama had even decreed that she be allowed to sleep in tomorrow before resuming her duties!

Rukia loved her brother so very much. And she was contemplating ways to thank him as she made her way to her room for the night. Her usual nightclothes were being washed and her new ones were a long-sleeved grey set patterned with pretty black moons. They were very comfortable, and this comfort kept distracting her while thinking of thank-you gestures for her brother.

She turned her doorknob and was feeling a good night's sleep coming on, and perhaps some good dreams, too, when she saw her visitor, sitting very comfortably on her bed. The little shinigami suddenly understood why her elder brother had cleared her schedule for her, and she especially understood why he was letting her sleep in tomorrow.

"Holy mother of _GOD, _Toushirou! Put some pants on!"

666

I've been waiting to put that ending for a long time. Is it suggesting a lemon afterward? You tell me. I ain't writing a lemon.

My comments are thus: My first plan for this epilogue was for Hitsugaya to lend Rukia his Zanpakuto while he went somewhere it wasn't needed, as a gesture of his trust towards her. But then Rukia lost Hyorinmaru for some reason, and had to get it back before Hitsugaya knew what was up. But I decided to expand on the last sentence of last chapter because I like the whole "chase, hit-and-run" element. Also, I randomly suggest listening to Boa's "Every Heart" for this fanfiction. No particular reason. And yes, Rukia's dreams in the beginning of the chapter are exact descriptions of my own. Because I know you _love _to hear my personal life. And if you don't, then why the hell are you reading this?

Enjoy this story. It's done. I worked very hard and annihilated Hitsugaya's character to please you guys. And I lost some sleep on a Sunday night so please be grateful. (Oh, random fact: Did you know my original ending for this was to have Rukia telling Hitsugaya she was pregnant with twins?)

Ta…Storm.


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